India What Can It Teach Us

INDIA

WHAT CAN IT TEACH US?

% Course of l^ertures

DKt.IVKnFi*

F. MAX MULLEE, KM.

HDK, DCICTOK OP LAW IM THE tJKrf'E«SIT¥ OF CAMBllOGl

OF THE FRENCH INSTSTUm

lira LieraRY

LOXGMAKS, GREEN. AND CO.

OXFORD:

BY JE. HCIIED HALL, M.A., AKD J. H. STACA,

PEIKTLBS TO TEE EXIVERSITT,

My-deae Cowell,

As these Lectures would never have been
written or delivered but for your hearty encoui-ag«-
ment, I hope you wdll now allow me to dedicate
them to you, not only as a token of my sincere
admiration of your great achievements as an
Oriental scholar, but also as a memorial of our
friendship, now more than thirty years old, a
friendship which has grown from year to year, has
weathered many a storm, and will last, I trust,
for what to both of us may remain of our short
passage from shore to shore.

I must add, however, that in dedicating these
Lectures to you, I do not wish to throw upon you
any responsibility for the views which I have put
forward in them. I know that you do not agree
with some of my views on the ancient religion and
literature of India, and I am well awai'e that with
regard to the recent date which I have assigned to
the whole of what is commonly called the Classical
Sanskrit Literature, I stand almost alone. No, if
friendship can claim any voice in the courts of

VI

DEDICATION.

science and literature, let me assure you that I
shall consider your outspoken criticism of m.y Let'-
tures as the very best proof of your true and honest
friendship. I have through life considered if the
greatest honour if real scholars, I mean uieii not
only of learning, but of judgment ainl charart(>r,
have considered my tvritings worthy of a severe
and searching criticism, and I have cared far nu>rc
for the production of one single new fact, though it
spoke against me, than for any amount of empty
praise or empty abuse. Sincere devotion to his
studies and an unswerving love of truth ought to
famish the true scholar witli an armour imperme-
able to flattery or abuse, and with a vizor that
shuts out no ray of light, from whatever (piarter it
may come. More light, more truth, more facts,
more combination of facts, these are his quest.
And if in that quest he fails, as many have failed
before him, he knows that in the search for trutli
failures are sometimes the condition of victory, ami
the true conquerors often those whom the world
calls the vanquished.

You know better than anybody else the present
state of Sanskrit scholarship. You know that at
present and for some time to come Sanskrit scholar-
ship means discovery and conquest. Every one of
your own works marks a real' advance, and a per-
manent occupation of new ground. But you know
also how small a strip has as yet been explored of
the vast continent of Sanskrit literature, and how

DEDICATION.

vii

much still remains terra incognita. No doubt this ex-
ploring work is troublesome, and often disappointing,
but young students must learn the truth of a re-
mark lately made by a distinguished member of
the Indian Ci¥il Service, whose death we all deplore,
Dr. Burnell, ‘ that no trouble is thrown away which
saves trouble to others.’ We want men who will
work hard, even at the risk of seeing their labours
unrequited ; we want strong and bold men who are
not afraid of storms and shipwwecks. The worst
sailors are not those who suffer shipwreck, but
those who only dabble in puddles and are afraid
of wetting their feet.

It is easy now to criticise the labours of Sir
William Jones, Thomas Colebrooke, and Horace
Hajunan Wilson, but what would have become of
Sanskrit scholarship if they had not rushed in
w'here even now so many fear to tread ? and what
will become of Sanskrit scholarship if their con-
quests are for ever to mark the limits of our know-
ledge? You know best that there is more to be
discovered in Sanslirit literature than Nalas and
S^akuntalds, and surely the young men who
every year go out to India are not deficient in
the spirit of enterprise, or even of adventure?
Why then should it be said that the race of bold
explorers, who once rendered the name of the
Indian Civil Service illustrious over the whole"
world, has well-nigh become extinct, and that
England, which offers the strongest incentives and

Viii DEDICATION.

the most brilliant opportunities for the study of
the ancient language, literature, and* history of
India, is no longer in the van of Sanskrit scho-
larship ? ,

If some of the young Candidates for tlic Indian
Civil Service who listened to my Lectures, quietly
made up their minds that such a reproach shall l>e
wiped out, if a few of them at least determined to
follow in the footsteps of Sir William Jones, "and to
show to the world that Englishmen who have been
able to achieve by pluck, by perseverance, and by
real political genius the material conquest of India,
do not mean to leave the laurels of its intellectual
conquest entirely to other countries, then I shall
indeed rejoice, and feel that I have j>aid 1)ack, in
however small a degree, the large debt of gratitude
whicli I owe to my adopted country and to some
of its greatest statesmen, who have given me the
opportunity which I could find nowhere else of
realising the dreams of my life, — the publication
of the text and commentary of the Rig-veda, the
most ancient book of Sanskrit, aye of Aryan litera-
ture, and now the edition of the translations of the
‘ Sacred Books of the East.’

I have left my Lectures very much as I deli-
vered them at Cambridge. I am fond of the form
of Lectures, because it seems to me the most
natural form which in our age didactic composi-
tion ought to take. As in ancient Greece the
dialogue reflected most truly the intellectual

DEDICATION.

IX

life of the people, and as in the Middle Ages
learned literature naturally assumed with the
recluse in his monastic cell the form of a long
monologue, so with us the lecture places the writer
most readily in that position in which he is
accustomed to deal with his fellow-men, and to
communicate his knowledge to others. It has no
doubt certain disadvantages. In a lecture which
is meant to be didactic we have, for the sake of
completeness, to say and to repeat certain things
which must be familiar to some of our readers,
while we are also forced to leave out information
which, even in its imperfect form, we should
probably not hesitate to submit to our fellow-
students, but which we feel we have not yet suffi-
ciently mastered and matured to enable us to place
it clearly and simply before a larger public.

But the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
A lecture, by keeping a critical audience constantly
before our eyes, forces us to condense our subject,
to discriminate between what is important and
what is not, and often to deny ourselves the
pleasure of displaying what may have cost us the
greatest labour, but is of little consequence to other
scholars. In lecturing we are constantly reminded
of what students are so apt to forget, that their
knowledge is meant not for themselves only, but
for others, and that to know well means to be able
to teach well. I confess I can never write unless
I think of somebody for whom I write, and I should

X

DEDICATION.

never wish for a better audience to have before my
mind than the learned, brilliant, and kind-hearted
assembly by which I was greeted in your University.

Still I must confess that I did not .succeed in
bringing all I wished to say, and more particularly
the evidence on which some of my statements
rested, up to the higher level of a lecture, and I
have therefore added a number of notes containing
the less organised matter which resisted as yet
that treatment which is necessary before our
studies can realise their highest purpose, that of
feeding, invigorating, and inspiriting the minds of
others.

Yours alfectionately,

F. MAX LLhlR.

OXFOBD,

December i 6 , 1883 .

WHAT CAI mDIA TEACH tJS?

LECTUEE I.

When I received from the Board of Historical
Studies at Cambridge the invitation to deliver a
course of lectures, specially intended for the Candi-
dates for the Indian Civil Service, I hesitated for
some time, feeling extremely doubtful whether in
a few public discourses I could say anything that
would be of real use to them in passing their
examinations. To enable young men to pass their
examinations seems now to have become the chief,
if not the only object of the Universities ; and to
no class of students is it of greater importance to
pass their examinations, and to pass them well, than
to the Candidates for the Indian Civil Service.

But although I was afraid that attendance on a
few public lectures, such as I could give, would
hardly benefit a Candidate who was not already fully
prepared to pass through the fiery ordeal of the three
London examinations, I could not on the other hand
shut my eyes completely to the fact that, after all,
Universities were not meant entirely, or even chiefly,
as stepping-stones to an examination, but that there
is something else which Universities can teach and
ought to teach — ^nay, which I feel quite sure they were
originally meant to teach — something that may not

B

2

liECTUBB I.

have a marketable value before a Board of Examiners,
but which has a permanent value for the whole of our
life, and that is a real interest in our work, and,
more than that, a love of our work, and, more than
that, a true joy and happiness in our work. If a
University can teach that, if it can engraft that
one small living germ in the minds of the young
men who come here to study and to prepare them-
selves for the battle of life, and, for what is still
more difficult to encounter, the daily dull drudgery
of life, then, I feel convinced, a University has done
more, and conferred a more lasting benefit on its
pupils than by helping them to pass the most difficult
examinations, and to take the highest place among
Senior Wranglers or First-Class men.

Unfortunately that Mnd of work wMch is now
required for passing one examination after another,
that process of cramming and crowding which has of
late been brought to the highest pitch of perfection,
has often the very opposite effect, and instead of
exciting an appetite for work, it is apt to produce
an indifference, if not a kind of intellectual nausea,
that may last for life.

Aud nowhere is this so much to he feared as in
the case of Candidates for the Indian Civil Service.
After they have passed their first examination for
admission to the Indian Civil Service, and given
proof that they have received the benefits of a liberal
education, and acquired that general information in
classics, history, and mathematics, which is provided
at our Public Schools, and forms no doubt the best
and surest foundation for all more special and pro-
fessional studies in later life, they suddenly find
themselves torn away from their old studies and

WHAT CAN INDIA TEACT! US l

S

their old friends, and compelled to take np new
subjects which to many of them seem strange, out-
landish, if not repulsive. Strange alphabets, strange
languages, strange names, strange literatures and
laws have to be faced, ‘to be got up’ as it is called,
not from choice, but from dire necessity. The whole
course of study during two years is determined for
them, the subjects fixed, the books prescribed, the
examinations regulated, and there is no time to look
either right or left, if a candidate wishes to make
sure of taking each successive fence in good style,
and without an accident.

I know quite well that this cannot be helped. I
am not speaking against the system of examinations
in general, if only they are intelligently conducted ;
nay, as an old examiner myself, I feel bound to say
that the amount of knowledge produced ready-made
at these examinations is to my mind perfectly as-
tounding. But while the answers are there on paper,
strings of dates, lists of royal names and battles,
irregular verbs, statistical figures and whatever else
you like, how seldom do we find that the heart of
the candidates is in the work which they have to do.
The results produced are certainly most ample and
voluminous, but they rarely contain a spark of
original thought, or even a clever mistake. It is
work done from necessity, or, let us be just, from
a sense of duty, but it is seldom, or hardly ever, a
labour of love.

Now why should that be 1 Why should a study
of Greek and Latin,— -of the poetry, the philosophy,
the laws and the art of Greece and Italy, — seem con-
genial to us, why should it excite even a certain
enthusiasm, and command general respect, while a

B 2

4

LECTURE I.

study of Sauskrit, and of tlie ancient poetry, the philo-
sophy, the laws, and the art of India is looked upon,
in the best case, as curious, hut is considered by most
people as useless, tedious, if not absurd.

And, strange to say, this feeling exists in England
more than in any other country. In France, Ger-
many, and Italy, even in Denmark, Sweden, and
Eussia, there is a vague charm connected with the
n?>.Tne of India. One of the most beautiful poems in
the German language is the Weisheii der Brahmanen,
the ‘Wisdom of the Brahmans,’ by Kuckert, to my
mind more rich in thought and more perfect in form
than even Goethe’s West-ostlicJier Livan. A scholar
who studies Sanskrit in Germany is supposed to be
initiated in the deep and dark mysteries of ancient
wisdom, and a man who has travelled in India, even
if he has only discovered Calcutta, or Bombay, or
Madras, is listened to like another Marco Polo. In
England a student of Sanskrit is generaUj considered
a bore, and an old Indian Civil servant, if he begins
to describe the marvels of Elephanta or the Towers
of Silence, runs the ri^ of producing a count-out.

There are indeed a few Oriental scholars whose
works are read, and who have acquired a certain
celebrity in England, because they were really men
of , uncommon genius, and would have ranked among
the great glories of the country, but for the mis-
fortune that their energies were devoted to Indian
literature— -I mean Sir William Jones, ‘one of the
most enlightened of the sons of men,’ as Dr.
Johnson called him, and Thomas Colebrooke. But
the names of others who have done good work in
their day also, men such as Ballantyne, Buchanan,
Carey, Crawfurd, Davis, Elliot, Ellis, Houghton,

WHA.T CAN INDIA TEACH TJS t

5

Leyden, Mackenzie, Marsden, Mnir, Prinsep, Eennell,
Tumour, Upliam, Wallich, Warren, Wilkins, Wilson,
and many others, are hardly known beyond the small
circle of Oriental scholars, and their works are looked
for in vain in libraries which profess to represent
with a certain completeness the principal branches of
scholarship and science in England.

How many times when I advised young men, can-
didates for the Indian Civil Service, to devote them-
selves before all things to a study of Sanskrit, have
I been told, ‘What is the use of our studying
Sanskrit 1 There are translations of fekuntaJA,
Manu, and the Hitopadesa, and what else is there in
that literature that is worth reading 1 K41id4sa
may be very pretty, and the Laws of Manu are very
curious, and the fables of the Hitopadesa are very
quaint ; but you would not compare Sanskrit litera-
ture with Greek, or recommend us to waste our time
in copying and editing Sanskrit texts which either
teach us nothing that we do not know already, or
teach us something which we do not care to know % ’

This seems to me a most unhappy misconception,
and it will be the chief object of my lectures to try to
remove it, or at all events to modify it, as much as
possible. I shall not attempt to prove that Sanskrit
literature is as good as Greek literature. Why should
we always compare 1 A study of Greek literature
has its own purpose, and a study of Sanskrit literature
has its own purpose ; hut what I feel convinced of,
and hope to convince you of, is that Sanskrit litera-
ture, if studied only in a right spirit, is full of human
interests, full of lessons which even Greek could never
teach us, a subject worthy to occupy the leisure, and
more than the leisure, of every Indian Civil servant ;

6

LECTURE I.

an-d certainly tlie best means of making any young
man who has to spend five-and-twenty years of his
lifb in Indiaj feel at home among the Indiums, as ii
feUow-worker among fellow-workers, and not as an
alien among aliens. There will be abundance of u.sefnl
and most interesting work for him to do, if only he
cares to do it, work such as he would look for in vain,
whether in Italy or in Greece, or even among the
pyramids of Egypt or the palaces of Babylon.

You will now understand why I have chosen as
the title of my lectures. What can India teach ns f
True, there are many things which India has to learn
from us ; but there are other things, and, in one sense,
very important things, which we too may learn from
India.

If I were to look over the whole world to find otit
the country .most richly endowed with all the wealth,
power, and beauty that nature can bestow — in some
parts a very paradise on earth — I should point to
India. If I were asked under what sky the human
mind has most fully developed some of its choicest
gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest pro-
blems of life, and has found solutions of some of them
which well deserve the attention even of those who have
studied Plato and Kant— I should point to India.
And if I were to ask myself from what literature we,
here in Europe, we who have been nurtured almost
exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans,
and of one Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw that
corrective which is most wanted in order to make
our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive,
more universal, m fact more truly human, a life,
not for this life only, but a transfigured and eternal
life — again I should point to India.

WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH HS ? 7

I know you will be surprised to hear me say this.
I know that more particularly those who have spent
many years of active life in Calcutta, or Bombay, or
Madras, will be horror-struck at the idea that the hu-
manity they meet with there, whether in the bazaars
or in the courts of justice, or in so-called native
society, should be able to teach us any lessons.

Let me therefore explain at once to my friends
who may have lived in India for years, as civil ser-
vants," or oiSicers, or missionaries, or merchants, and
who ought to know a great deal more of that country
than one who has never set foot on the soil of Ary4-
varta, that we are speaking of two very different
Indias. I am thinking chiefly of India, such as it
was a thousand, two thousand, it may be three thou-
sand years ago ; they think of the India of to-day.
And again, when thinking of the India of to-day,
they remember chiefly the India of Calcutta, Bom-
bay, or Madras, the India of the towns. I look
to the India of the village communities, the true
India of the Indians.

What I wish to show to you, I mean more espe-
cially the candidates for the Indian Civil Service, is
that this India of a thousand, or two thousand, or
three thousand years ago, aye the India of to-day
also, if only you know where to look for it, is fuU of
problems the solution of which concerns all of us,
even us in this Europe of the nineteenth century.

If you have acquired any special tastes here in
England, you wiD. find plenty to satisfy them in
India; and whoever has learnt to take an interest
in any of the great problems that occupy the best
thinkers and workers at home, need certainly not be
afraid of India proving to him an intellectual exile.

8

LEGTUEE I.

If you care for geology, there is work for you fi-oiu
the Himalayas to Ceylon

If you are fond of botany, there is a flora ricli
enough for many Hookers.

If you are a zoologist, think of Haeckel, who is
just now rushing through Indian forests and dredging
in Indian seas, and to whom his stay in India is like
the realisation of the brightest dream of his life.

If you are interested in Ethnology, why India is
like a living ethnological museum.

If you are fond of Archaeology, if you have ever
assisted at the opening of a barrow in England, and
know the delight of finding a fibula, or a knife, or
a flint in a heap of rubbish, read only ‘General
Cunningham’s Annual Reports of the Archaeological
Survey of India,’ and you will be impatient for the
time when you can take your spade and bring to
light the ancient Yih^ras or Colleges built by the
Buddhist monarchs of India

If ever you amused yourselves with collecting
coins, why the soil of India teems with coins,
Persian, Carian, Thracian, Parthian, Greek, Mace-
donian, Scythian, Romany and Mohammedan. When
Warren Hastings was Governor-General, an earthen
pot was found on the bank of a river in the province
of Benares, containing 172 gold Daricsl Warren
Hastings considered himself as making the most
munificent present to his masters that he might

Pliny (VI. 26) tells us tlmt in his day the annual drain of
bullion into India, in return for her valuable produce, reached tlie
iinmense amount of ‘five hundred and fifty millions of sesterces.’
See E. Thomas, The Indian Balhard, p. 1 3.

^ Cunningham, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,
1881, p. 184.

WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH US 1

9

ever have it in his power to send them, by present-
ing- those ancient coins to the Court of Directors.
The story is that they were sent to the melting
pot. At all events they had disappeared when
Warren Hastings returned to England. It rests
with you to prevent the revival of such Vandalism.

In one of the last numbers of the ‘ Asiatic Journal
of Bengal ’ you may read of the discoveiy of a trea-
sure as rich in gold almost as some of the tombs
opened- by Dr. Schliemann at Mykens, nay I should
add, perhaps not quite unconnected with some of the
treasures found at Mykense ; yet hardly any one has
taken notice of it in England^ !

The study of Mythology has assumed an entirely
new character, chiefly owing to the light that has
been thrown on it by the ancient Vedic Mythology
of India. But though the foundation of a true
Science of Mythology has been laid, all the detail has
still to be worked out, and could be worked out
nowhere better than in India.

Even the study of fables owes its new life to
India, from whence the various migrations of fables
have been traced at various times and through
various channels from East to West Buddhism is
now known to have been the principal source of our
legends and parables. But here too, many problems
still wait for their solution. Think, for instance, of the
allusion ® to the fable of the donkey in the lion s skin,

^ See note A.

® See Selected Essays, vol. I, p. 500, ‘ The Migration of Fables.’

* Gratylus 41 1 A, ‘ Still, as I have put on the lion’s skin, I
must not he faint-hearted.' Possibly, ho-we-yer, this may refer to
Hercules, and not to the fable of the donkey in the lion’s or the
tiger’s skin. In the Hitopadesa, a donkey, being nearly starved, is

10

LBCTUEE r.

whicli occurs in Plato’s Cratylus. Was that borrowed
from the East? Or take the foble of the weasel
changed by Aphrodite into a woman who, when she
saw a mouse, could not refrain from making a s]-)ring
at it. This, too, is very like a Sanskrit faltle, but
how then could it have been brought into Greece
early enough to appear in one of the comedies of
Strattis, about 400 B. c. M Here, too, there is still
plenty of work to do.

We may go back even further into antiqurty, and
still find strange coincidences between the legends of
India and the legends of the West, without as yet
being able to say how they travelled, whether from
East to West, or from West to East. That at the
time of Solomon, there was a channel of {'ommuuica-
tion open between India and Syria and Pale.^tine i.s
established beyond doubt, I believe, by certain San-
skrit words which occur in the Bible as names of
articles of export from Ophir, articles such as ivory,
apes, peacocks, and sandalwood, which, taken to-
gether, could not have been exported from any
country but India Nor is there any reason to
suppose that the commercial intercourse between
India, the Persian Gulf, the Eed Sea and the
Mediterranean was ever completely interrupted, even
at the time when the Book of Kings is supposed to
have been written.

sent by Hs master into a cornfield to feed. In order to shield hin) he
puts a tiger’s skin on him. All goes well till a watchman approaches,
hiding himself under his grey coat, and trying to shoot the tiger.
The donkey thinks it is a grey female dontey, begins to bray, and is
killed. On a similar fable in JEsop, see Benfey, Pantschatantra, vol.
h P- 463 ; M. M., Selected Essays, vol. I, p. 513.

' See Fragments Comic. (Didot) p. 302; Benfey, 1 . c. vol. I, p. 374.

^ Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. I, p. 231.

■WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH US?

11

Now you remember tbe judgment of Solomon,wbicli
has always been admired as a proof of great legal
wisdom among the Jews I must confess that, not
having a legal mind, I never could suppress a certain
shudder when reading the decision of Solomon :
‘ Divide the living child in two, and give half to the
one, and half to the other/

Let me now tell you the same story as it is told
by the Buddhists, whose sacred Canon is full of such
legend’s and parables. In the Kanjur, which is the
Tibetan translation of the Buddhist Tripifeka, we
likewise read of two women who claimed each to be
the mother of the same qhild. The king, after listening
to their quarrels for a long time, gave it up as hope-
less to settle who was the real mother. Upon this
Yisllkhi stepped forward and said ; ‘ What is the use
of examining and cross-examining these women. Let
them take the boy and settle it among themselves.’
Thereupon both women fell on the child, and when
the fight became violent, the child was hurt and
began to cry. Then one of them let him go, beca'use
she could not bear to hear the child cry.

That settled the question. The king gave the
child to the true mother, and had the other beaten
with a rod.

This seems to me, if not the more primitive, yet the
more natural form of the story — showing a deeper
knowledge of human nature, and more wisdom than
even the wisdom of Solomon

^ I Kings iii. 35.

® See some excellent remarks on this subject in Ehys Davids,
Buddhist Birth Stories, vol. I, pp. xiii and xliv. The learned
scholar gives another version of the story from a Singhalese trans-

12

LBCTUEE 1.

Many of you may have studied not only languages,
but also the Science of Language, and is there any
country in which some of the most important pro-
blems of that science, say only the growth and decay
of dialects, or the possible mixture of languages, with
regard not only to words, hut to grammatical ele-
ments also, can be studied to greater advantage than
among the Aryan, the Dravidian and the Munda
inhabitants of India, when brought in contact with
their various invaders and conquerors, the 6rreeks,
the Yue-tchi, the Arabs, the Persians, the Moguls, and
lastly the English.

Again, if you are a student of Jurisprudence, there
is a history of law to be explored in India, very
different from what is known of the history of law in
Greece, in Eome, and in Germany, yet both by its con-
trasts and by its similarities full of suggestions to the
student of Comparative Jurisprudence. New mate-
rials are being discovered every year, as, for instance,
the so-called Dharma or Samay 4 ^drika Shtras, which
have supplied the materials for the later metrical
law-books, such as the famous Laws of Manu. What
was once called ‘ The Code of Laws of Manu,’ and
confidently referred to laoo, or at least 500 B.O., is
now hesitatingly referred to perhaps the fourth cen-
tury A. j>., and called neither a Code, nor a Code of
Laws, least of all, the Code of Laws of Manu.

If you have leamt to appreciate the value of recent
researches into the antecedents of all law, namely the
foundation and growth of the simplest political com-
munities — and nowhere could you have had better
opportunities for it than here at Cambridge — you

latiou of the d^ataka, dating from the fourteenth century, and he
expresses a hope that Dr. Fausholl will soon publish the Pali original.

WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH US?

13

will find a field of observation opened before you in
tbe still existing village estates in India that will
amply repay careful research.

And take that which, after all, whether we confess
or deny it, we care for more in this life than for any-
thing else — nay, which is often far more cai'ed for
by those who deny than by those who confess — take
that which supports, pervades, and directs all our acts
and thoughts and hopes — without which there can be
neither village community nor empire, neither custom
nor law, neither right nor wrong — take that which,
next to language, has most firmly fixed the specific
and permanent barrier between man and beast-—
which alone has made life possible and bearable, and
which, as it is the deepest, though often hidden spring
of individual life, is also the foundation of all national
life, — -the history of all histories, and yet the mystery
of all mysteries— take religion, and where can you
study its true origin, its natural growth, and its
inevitable decay better than in India, the home of
Brahmanism, the birthplace of Buddhism, and the
refuge of Zoroastrianism, even now the mother of
new superstitions — and why not, in the future, the
regenerate child of the purest faith, if only purified
from the dust of nineteen centuries?

You will find yourselves everywhere in India
between an immense past and an immense future,
with opportunities such as the old world could but
seldom, if ever, offer you. Take any of the burning
questions of the day— popular education, higher edu-
cation, parliamentary representation, codification of
laws, finance, emigration, poor-law, and whether you
have anything to teach and to try, or anything to
observe and to learn,. India will supply you with a

14

LECTUBE I.

laboratory such, as exists nowhere else. That very
Sanskrit, the study of which may at first seem so
tedious to you and so useless, if only you will carry
it on, as you may carry it on here at Cambridge
better tlian anywhere else, will open before you large
layers of literature, as yet almost unknown and im-
explored, and allow you an insight into strata of
thought deeper than any you have known before,
and rich in lessons that appeal to the deepest sym-
pathies of the human heart.

Depend upon it, if only you can make leisure, you will
find plenty of work in India for your leisure hours.

India is not, as you may imagine, a distant, strange,
or, at the very utmost, a curious country. India for
the future belongs to Europe, it has its place in the
Indo-European world, it has its place in our own
history, and in what is the very life of history, the
history of the human mind.

You know how some of the best talent and the
noblest genius of our age has been devoted to the
study of the development of the outward or material
world, the growth of the earth, the first appearance
of living cells, their combination and differentiation,
leading up to the beginning of organic life, and its
steady progress from the lowest to the highest stages.
Is there not an inward and intellectual world also
which has to be studied in its historical development,
from the first appearance of predicative and demon-
strative roots, their combination and differentiation,
leading up to the beginning of rational thought in
its steady progress from the lowest to the highest
stages % And in that study of the history of the
human mind, in that study of ourselves, of our true
selves, India occupies a place second to no other

WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH ITS 1

15

country. Whatever sphere of the human mind you
may select for your special study, whether it be
language, or religion, or mythology, or philosophy,
whether it be laws or customs, primitive art or
primitive science, everywhere, you have to go to
I ndia. ; whether you like it or not, because some of
the most valuable and most instructive materials in
the history of man are treasured up in India, and in
India only.

And while thus trying to explain to those whose
lot win soon he cast in India the true position which
that wonderful country holds or ought to hold in
universal history, I may perhaps be able at the same
time to appeal to the sympathies of other members
of this University, by showing them how imperfect
our knowledge of universal history, our insight into
the development of the human intellect, must always
remain, if we narrow our horizon to the history of
Greeks and Romans, Saxons and Celts, with a dim
background of Palestine, Egypt, and Babylon, and
leave out of sight our nearest intellectual relatives,
the Aryans of India, the framers of the most wonderful
language, the Sanskrit, the fellow-workers in the con-
struction of our fundamental concepts, the fathers of
the most natural of natural religions, the makers of
the most transparent of mythologies, the inventors
of the most subtle philosophy, and the givers of the
most elaborate laws.

There are many things which we think essential
in a liberal education, whole chapters of history
which we teach in our schools and universities, that
cannot for one moment compare with the chapter
relating to India, if only properlynnderstood and
freely interpreted.

16 LECXUBB I.

In otir time, when the study of history threatens to
become almost an impossibility — such is the mass of
details which historians collect in archives and pour
out before us in monographs — it seems to me more
than ever the duty of the true historian to find out
the real proportion of things, to arrange his materials
according to the strictest rules of artistic perspec-
tive, and to keep completely out of sight all that
may he rightly ignored by us in our own passage
across the historical stage of the world. It, is this
power of discovering what is really important that
distinguishes the true historian from the mere
chronicler, in whose eyes everything is important,
particularly if he has discovered it himself. I think
it was Frederick the Great who, when sighing for
a true historian of his reign, complained bitterly that
those who wrote the history of Prussia never forgot
to describe the buttons on his uniform. And it is
probably of such historical works that Carlyle was
thinking when he said that he had waded through
them all, but that nothing should ever induce him to
hand even their names and titles down to posterity.
And yet how much is there even in Carlyle’s histories
that might safely be consigned to oblivion !

Why do we want to know history? Why does
history form a recognized part of our liberal education?
Simply because all of us, and every one of us, ought
to know how we have come to be what we are, so
that each generation need not start again from the
same point, and toil over the same ground, but, profit-
ing by the experience of those who came before, may
advance towards higher points and nobler aims. As
a child when grovdng up, might ask his father or
grandfather, who had built the house they lived in,

WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH US 1

17

or who had cleared the field that yielded them their
food, we ask the historian whence we came, and how
we came into possession of what we call our own.
History may tell us afterwards many useful and
amusing things, gossip, such as a child might like to
hear from his mother or grandmother ; but what his-
tory has to teach us before all and everything, is our
own antecedents, our own ancestors, our own descent.

Now our principal intellectual ancestors are, no
doubt, tlie Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, and the
Saxons, and we, here in Europe, should not call a
man educated or enlightened who was ignorant of
the debt which he owes to his intellectual ancestors
in Palestine, Greece, Eome, and Germany. The whole
past history of the world would be darkness to him,
and not knowing what those who came before him
had done for him, he would probably care little to do
anything for those who are to come after him. Life
would be to him a chain of sand, while it ought to be
a kind of electric chain that rnakes our hearts tremble
and vibrate with the most ancient thoughts of the
past, as well as with the most distant hopes of the
future.

Let us begin with our religion. No one can
understand even the historical possibility of the
Christian religion without knowing something of
the Jewish race, which must be studied chiefly in
the pages of the Old Testament. And in order to
appreciate the true relation of the Jews to the rest
of the ancient world, and to understand what
ideas were peculiarly their own, and what ideas
they shared in common with the other members of
the Semitic stock, or what moral and religious im-
pulses they received from their historical contact

18

LECTURE I.

with other nations of antiquity, it is absolutely
necessary that we should pay some attention to the
history of Babylon, Nineveh, Phoenicia, and Persia.
These may seem distant countries and forgotten
people, and many might feel inclined to say, ‘ Let the
dead bury their dead ; what are those mummies to
usi’ Stm, such is the marvellous continuity of
history, that I could easily show you many things
which we, even we who are here assembled, owe to
Babylon, to Nineveh, to Egypt, Phoenicia, an 4 Persia.

Every one who carries a watch, owes to the Baby-
lonians the division of the hour into sixty minutes.
It may he a very bad division, yet such as it is, it
has come to us from the Greeks and Romans, and it
came to them from Babylon. The sexagesimal
division is peculiarly Babylonian. Hipparchos, 1 50 B.C.,
adopted it from Babylon, Ptolemy, 150 a.d., gave it
wider currency, and the French, when they decimated
everything else, respected the dial plates of our
watches, and left them with their sixty Babylonian
minutes.

Everyone who writes a letter, owes his alphabet
to the Romans and Greeks ; the Greeks owed their
alphabet to the Phoenicians, and the Phoenicians learnt
it in Egypt. It may be a very imperfect alphabet —
as all the students of phonetics will teH you; yet,
such as it is, and has been, we owe it to the old
Phoenicians and Egyptians, and in every letter we
trace, there lies imbedded the mummy of an ancient
Egyptian hieroglyphic.

What do we owe to the Persians 1 It does not
seem to be much, for they were not a very inventive
race, and what they knew, they had chiefly learnt
from their neighbours, the Babylonians and Assyrians.

WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH US ? 19

Still, we owe them something. First of all, we owe
them a large debt of gratitude for having allowed
themselves to be beaten by the Greeks; for think
what the world would have been, if the Persians had
beaten the Greeks at Marathon, and had enslaved,
that means, annihilated, the genius of ancient Greece.
However, this may be called rather an involuntary
contribution to the progress of humanity, and I men-
tion it only in order to show, how narrowly, not only
Greeks and Romans, but Saxons and Anglo-Saxons
too, escaped becoming Parsis or Fire-worshippers.

But I can mention at least one voluntary gift
which came to us from Persia, and that is the
relation of silver to gold in our bi-metallic eurreucy.
That relation was, no doubt, first determined in
Babylonia, but it assumed its practical and historical
importance in the Persian empire, and spread ifrom
there to the Greek colonies in Asia, and thence to
Europe, where it has maintained itself with slight
variation to the present day.

A talent^ was divided into sixty minse, a mina into
sixty shekels. Here we have again the Babylonian
sexagesimal system, a system which owes its origin
and popularity, I believe, to the fact that sixty has
the greatest number of divisors. Shekel was trans-
lated into Greek by Stater, and an Athenian gold
stater, like the Persian gold stater, down to the
times of Crcesus, Darius, and Alexander, was the
sixtieth part of a mina of gold, not very far therefore
from our sovereign. The proportion of silver to gold
was fixed as 13 or 13^ to i ; and if the weight of a

^ See Cunningham, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,
1881, pp. 162-168.

C 2

20 LECTURE I.

silver shekel was made as 13 to 10, suck a coin would
correspond very nearly to our florin Half a silver
shekel was a dracJima, and this was therefore the
true ancestor of our shilling.

Again you may say that any attempt at fixing the
relative value of silver and gold is, and always has
been, a great mistake. Still it shows how closely
the world is held together, and how, for good or for
evil, we are what we are, not so much by oxirselves
as by the toil and mofl. of those who came before us,
our true intellectual ancestors, whatever the blood may
have been composed of that ran through their veins,
or the bones which formed the rafter’s of their skuUs.

And if it is true, with regard to religion, that no one
could understand it and appreciate its full purport
without knowing its origin and growth, that is, without
knowing something of what the cuneiform inscriptions
of Mesopotamia, the hieroglyphic and hieratic texts of
Egypt, and the historical monuments of Phcenicia and
Persia can alone reveal to us, it is equally true, with
regard to all the other elements that constitute the
whole of our intellectual life. If we are Jewish or
Semitic in our religion, we are Greek in our philosophy,
Roman in our politics, and in our morality,

and it follows that a knowledge of the history of the
Greeks, Eomans, and Saxons, or of the flow of civili-
zation from Greece to Italy, and through Germany to
these isles, forms an essential element in what is called
a liberal, that is, an historical and rational education.

But then it might be said, Let this be enough.
Let us know by all means all that deserves to be

' Stm, the Persian word for silver, has also the meaning of one-
thirteenth; see Cunningham, 1 . 0. p. 165.

WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH US?

21

known about our real spiritual ancestors in the great
historical kingdoms of the world ; let us be grateful
for all we have inherited from Egyptians, Babylonians,
Phoenicians, Jews, Greeks, Romans, and Saxons. But
why bring in India 1 Why add a new burden to what
every man has to bear already, before he can call
himself fairly educated t What have we inherited
from the dark dwellers on the Indus and the Granges,
that we should have to add their royal names and
dates and deeds to the archives of our akeady over-
burdened memory %

There is some justice in this complaint. The
ancient inhabitants of India are not our intellec-
tual ancestors in the same direct way as Jews,
Greeks, Romans, and Saxons are ; but they repre-
sent, nevertheless, a collateral branch of that family
to which we belong by language, that is, by thought,
and their historical records extend in some respects
so far beyond all other records and have been
preserved to us in such perfect and such legible
documents, that we can learn from them lessons
which we can learn nowhere else, and supply missing
links in our intellectual ancestry far more important
than that missing link (which we can well afford to
miss), the link between Ape and Man.

I am not speaking as yet of the literature of India
as it is, but of something far more ancient, the
language of India, or Sanskrit. No one supposes
any longer that Sanskrit was the common source of
Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon. This used to be
said, but it has long been shown that Sanskrit is
only a collateral branch of the same stem from which
spring Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon ; and not only
these, but all the Teutonic, all the Geltic, all the

22

LECTURE I.

Slavonic languages, nay, tte languages of Persia
and Armenia also.

What, then, is it that gives to Sanskrit its claim
on our attention, and its supreme importance in the
eyes of the historian 1

First of all, its antiquity, — for we know San-
skrit at an earlier period than Greek. But what
is far more important than its merely chrono-
logical antiquity is the antique state of preser-
vation in which that Aryan language has been
handed down to us. The world had known Latin
and Greek for centuries, and it was felt, no doubt,
that there was some kind of similarity between the
two. But how was that similarity to be explained 1
Sometimes Latin was supposed to give the key to
the formation of a Greek word, sometimes Greek
seemed to betray the secret of the origin of a Latin
word. Afterwards, when the ancient Teutonic lan-
guages, such as Gothic and Anglo-Saxon, and the
ancient Celtic and Slavonic languages too, came to
be studied, no one could help seeing a certain family
likeness among them all. But how such a likeness
between these languages came to be, and how, what
is far more difficult to explain, such striking dif-
ferences too between these languages came to be,
remained a mystery, and gave rise to the most
gratuitous theories, most of them, as you know,
devoid of ajl scientific foundation. As soon, however,
as Sanskrit stepped into the midst of these languages,
there came light and warmth and mutual recognition.
They all ceased to be strangers, and each feU of its
own accord into its right place. Sanskrit was the
eldest sister of them all, and could tell of many things
which the other members of the family had quite

WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH ITS? 23

forgotten. Still, tlie other languages too had each
their own tale to tell ; and it is out of all their tales
together that a chapter in the human mind has been
put together which, in some respects, is more important
to us than any of the other chapters, the Jewish, the
Greek, the Latin, or the Saxon.

The process by which that ancient chapter of
history was recovered is very simple. Take the
words which occur in the same form and with the
same meaning in all the seven branches of the Aiyan
family, and you have in them the most genuine and
trustworthy records in which to read the thoughts
of our true ancestors, before they had become
Hindus, or Persians, or Greeks, or Romans, or
Celts, or Teutons, or Slaves. Of course, some of
these ancient charters may have been lost in one
or other of these seven branches of the Aryan family,
but even then, if they are found in six, or five, or
four, or three, or even two only of its original branches,
the probability remains, unless we can prove a later
historical contact between these languages, that these
words existed before the great Aryan Separation.
If we find agni, meaning fire, in Sanskrit, and ignis,
meaning fire, in Latin, we may safely conclude that
fire was known to the imdivided Aryans, even if no
trace of the same name of fire occurred anywhere else.
And why 1 Because there is no indication that Latin
remained longer united with Sanskrit than any of
the other Aryan languages, or that Latin could have
borrowed such a word from Sanskrit, after these two
languages had once become distinct. We have, how-
ever, the Lithuanian ugnls, and the Scottish ingle,
to show that the Slavonic and possibly the Teu-
tonic languages also, knew the same word for fire,

24

LECTUEB I.

tlaorigli they replaced it in time by other words.
Wor^, like all other things, 'will die, and -v^diy they
should live on in one soil and wither away and
perish in another, is not always easy, to say. What
has become of ignis, for instance, in all the Romance
languages 1 It has withered away and perished, pro-
bably because, after losing its final unaccentuated
syllable, it became awkward to pronounce ; and
another word focus, which in Latin meant fire-place,
hearth, altar, has taken its place.

Suppose we wanted to know whether the ancient
Aryans before their separation knew the mouse : we
should only have to consult the pi'incipal xirjmn
dictionaries, and we should find in Sanskrit mush, in
Greek yu??, iu Latin mus, in Old Slavonic mi/se, in Old
High German m^s, enabling us to say that, at a time
so distant from us that we feel inclined to measure it
by Indian rather than by our own chronology, the
mouse was known, that is, w'as named, was conceived
and recognised as a species of its own, not to be con-
founded with any other vermin.

And if we were to ask whether the enemy of the
mouse, the cat, was kno-wn at the same distant time,
we should feel jiTstified in saying decidedly, No.
The cat is called in Sanskrit m4r^4ra and vid41a. In
Greek and Latin the words usually given as names of
the cat, 'ydKet} axxd aIXovpo?, mustella andy^Zes, did not
originally signify the tame cat, but the weasel or
marten. The name for the real cat in Greek was
Karra, in Latin caius, and these words have supplied
the names for cat in all the Teutonic, Slavonic, and
Celtic languages. The animal itself, so far as we
know at present, came to Europe from Egypt, wdiere
it had been worshipped for centuries and tamed; and

WHAT CAUr INDIA TEACH US 1

25

as tills arrival proliably dates from the fourth century
A. D., we can well understand that no common name
for it could have existed when the Aryan nations
separated

In this way a more or less complete picture of
the state of civilization, previous to the Aryan Sepa-
• ration, can be and has been reconstructed, like a
mosaic put together with the fragments of ancient
stones ; and I doubt whether, in tracing the history
of the human mind, we shall ever reach to a lower
stratum than that which is revealed to us by the con-
verging rays of the different Aryan languages.

Nor is that all ; for even that Proto-Aryan lan-
guage, as it has been reconstructed from the ruins
scattered about in India, Greece, Italy, and Germany,
is clearly the result of a long, long process of thought.
One shrinks from chronological limitations when look-
ing into Such distant periods of life. But if we find
Sanskrit as a perfect literary language, totally different
from Greek and Latin, 1500 B.C., where can those
streams of Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin meet, as we
trace them back to their common source 1 And
then, when we have followed these mighty national
streams back to their common meeting point, even
then that common language looks like a rock washed
down and smoothed for ages by the ebb and flow of
thought. We find in that language such a compound,
for instance, as asmi, I am, Greek ea-fii. What would
other languages give for such a pure concept as I
am ? They may say, I stand, or I Uv&, or I grow, or
I turn, but it is given to few languages only to be
able to say I am. To us nothing seems more natural

^ See note B.

26

LECTURE I.

ttan the auxiliary verb I am : but, in I'eality, no -work
of art has required greater efforts than this little word
I am. And all those efforts lie beneath the level of
the common Proto-Aryan speech. Many different ways
were open, were tried, too, in order to arrive at such
a compound as asmi, and such a concept as I am.
But all were given up, and this one alone remained,
and was preserved for ever in all the languages and
all the dialects of the Aryan family. In as-mi, as is
the root, and in the compound as-mi, the predicative
root as, to be, is predicated of mi, I. But no language
could ever produce at once so empty, or, if you like,
so general a root as as, to be. As meant originally to
breathe, and from it we have asu, breath, spirit, life,
also ds the mouth, Latin 6s, 6ris. By constant wear
and tear this root as, to breathe, had first to lose all
signs of its original material character, before it could
convey that purely abstract meaning of existence,
without any qualification, which has rendered to the
higher operations of thought the same service which
the nought, likewise the invention of Indian genius,
has to render in arithmetic. Who will say how long
the friction lasted which changed as, to breathe, into
as, to be \ And even a root as, to breathe, was an
Aryan root, not Semitic, not Turanian. It possessed
an historical individuality — it was the work of our
forefathers, and represents a thread which unites us
in our thoughts and words with those who fii’st
thought for us, with those who first spoke for us, and
whose thoughts and words men are still thinking and
speaking, though divided from them by thousands, it
may be by hundreds of thousands of years.

This is what I call history in the true sense of the
word, something really worth knowing, far more so

■WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH US?

27

tlian the scandals of courts, or the butcheries of nations,
which fill so many pages of our Manuals of History.
And all this work is only beginning, and whoever
likes to labour in these the most ancient of historical
archives will find plenty of discoveries to make —
and yet people ask, what is the use of learning
Sanskrit 1

We get accustomed to everything, and cease to
wonder at what would have startled our fathers and
upset all their stratified notions, like a sudden earth-
quake. Every child now learns at school that English
is an Aryan or Indo-European language, that it be-
longs to the Teutonic branch, and that this branch,
together with the Italic, Greek, Celtic, Slavonic,
Iranic, and Indie branches, all spring from the same
stock, and form together the great Aryan or Indo-
European family of speech.

But this, though it is taught now in our elementary
schools, was really, but fifty years ago, like the open-
ing of a new horizon of the world of the intellect,
and the extension of a feeling of closest fraternity
that made us feel at home where before we had been
strangers, and changed millions of so-called barbarians
into our own kith and kin. To speak the same
language constitutes a closer union than to have
drunk the same milk; and Sanskrit, the ancient
language of India, is substantially the same language
as Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon. This is a lesson
which we should never have learnt but from a study
of Indian language and literature, and if India had
taught us nothing else, it would have taught us
more than almost any other language ever did.

It is quite amusing, though instructive also, to
read what was written by scholars and philosophers

28

LECTURE I.

when this new %ht first dawned on the world.
They would not have it, they would not believe that
there could be any community of origin between the
people of Athens and Eome, and the so-called Niggers
of India. The classical scholars scouted the idea, and
I myself still remember the time, when I was a
student at Leipzig and began to study Sanskrit, with
what contempt any remarks on Sanskrit or compara-
tive grammar were treated by my teachers, men such
as Gottfried Hermann, Haupt, Westermann, Stall-
baum, and others. No one ever was for a time so com-
pletely laughed down as Professor Bopp, when he first
published his Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit, Zend,
Greek, Latin, and Gothic. All hands were against
him ; and if in comparing Greek and Latin with
Sanskrit, Gothic, Celtic, Slavonic, or Persian, he
happened to have placed one single accent wrong,
the shouts of those who knew nothing but Greek
and Latin, and probably looked in their Greek Dic-
tionaries to be quite sure of their accents, would
never end. Dugald Stewart, rather than admit a
relationship between Hindus and Scots, would rather
believe that the whole Sanskrit language and the
whole of Sanskrit literature — mind, a literature ex-
tending over three thousand years and larger than
the ancient literature of either Greece or Eome,—
was a forgery of those wily priests, the Brahmans.
I remember too how, when I was at school at Leipzig,
(and a very good school it was, with such masters as
Nobbe, Forbiger, Funkhaenel, and Palm, — an old
school too, which could boast of Leibniz among its
former pupils) I remember, I say, one of our masters
(Dr. Klee) telling us one afternoon, when it w'as
too hot to do any serious work, that there was a

WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH US'?

29

language spoken in India, which was much the same
as Greek and Latin, nay, as German and Russian.
At first we thought it was a joke, but when one saw
the parallel columns of Numerals, Pronouns, and
Verbs in Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin written on the
black board, one felt in the presence of facts, before
wLich one had to bow. All one’s ideas of Adam and
Eve, and the Paradise, and the tower of Babel, and
Shem, Ham, and Japhet, with Homer and .^neas
and Virgil too, seemed to be whirling round and
round, till at last one picked up the fragments and
tried to build up a new world, and to live with a
new historical consciousness.

Here you wdU see why I consider a certain know-
ledge of India an essential portion of a libei’al or
an historical education. The concept of the Eu-
ropean man has been changed and widely extended by
our acquaintance with India, and we know now that
we are something different from what we thought
we were. Suppose the Americans, owing to some
cataclysmal events, had forgotten their English
origin, and after two or three thousand years found
themselves in possession of a language and of ideas
which they could trace back historically to a certain
date, but which, at that date, seemed, as it were, fallen
from the sky, without any explanation of their origin
and previous growth, what would they say if sud-
denly the existence of an English language and
literature were revealed to them, such as they existed
in the eighteenth century— explaining all that seemed
before almost miraculous, and solving almost every
question that could be asked ! Well, this is much
the same as what the discovery of Sanskrit has done
for us. It has added a new period to our historical

LEOTUEE I.

30

consciousness, and revived the recollections of our
childhood, which seemed to have vanished for ever.

Whatever else we may have been, it is quite clear
now that, many thousands of years ■ ago, we were
something that had not yet developed into an Eng-
lishman, or a Saxon, or a Greek, or a Hindu either,
yet contained in itself the germs of all these characters.
A strange being, you may say. Yes, but for all that a
very real being, and an ancestor too of whom we must
learn to be proud, far more than of any such modern
ancestors, as Normans, Saxons, Celts, and all the rest.

And this is not all yet that a study of Sanskrit
and the other Aryan languages has done for us. It
has not only widened our views of man, and taught
us to embrace millions of strangers and barbarians as
members of one family, but it has imparted to the
whole ancient history of man a reality which it never
possessed before.

We speak and write a great deal about antiquities,
and if we can lay hold of a Greek statue or an
Egyptian Sphinx or a Babylonian Bull, our heart
rejoices, and we build museums grander than any
Royal palaces to receive the treasures of the past.
This is quite right. But are you aware that every
one of us possesses what may be called the richest
and most wonderful Museum of Antiquities, older
than any statues, sphinxes, or bulls 1 And where?
Why, in our own language. When I use such words

father or mother, heart or tear, one, two, three, here
and there, I am handling coins or counters that were
current before there was one single Greek statue, one
single Babylonian BuU, one single Egyptian Sphinx.
Yes, each of us carries about with him the richest and
most wonderful Museum of Antiquities; and if he only

■WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH ITS 1

31

knows kow to treat those treasures, how to rub and
polish them till they become translucent again, how
to arrange them and read them, they will tell him
marvels more marvellous than all hieroglyphics and
cuneiform inscriptions put together. The stories
they have told us are beginning to be old stories
now. Many of you have heard them before. But
do not let them cease to be marvels, like so many
things which cease to be marvels because they happen
every d^. And do not think that there is nothing
left for you to do. There are more marvels stiE to be
discovered in language than have ever been revealed
to us ; nay, there is no word, however common, if
only you know how to take it to pieces, like a
cunningly contrived work of art, fitted together
thousands of years ago by the most cunning of
artists, the human mind, that will not make you
listen and marvel more than any chapter of the
Arabian Nights.

But I must not allow myself to be carried away
from my proper subject. All I wish to impress on
you by way of introduction is that the results of
the Science of Language, which, without the aid of
Sanskrit, would never have been obtained, form an
essential element of what we call a liberal, that is
an historical education, — an education which will
enable a man to do what the French call sorienter,
that is. Ho find his East,' ‘his true East,’ and thus
to determine his real place in the world ; to know,
in fact, the port whence man started, the course he
has followed, and the port towards which he has
to steer.

We all come from the East — all that we value

LEGTITEB I.

32

most has come to us from the East, and in going to
the East, not only those who have received a special
Oriental training, but everybody who has enjoyed
the advantages of a liberal, that is, of a truly histo-
rical education, ought to feel that he is going to his
‘ old home,’ full of memories, if only he can read them.
Instead of feeling your hearts sink within you, when
nest year you approach the shores of India, I wish
that every one of you could feel what Sir William
i Jones felt, when, just one hundred years ago, he came
to the end of his long voyage from England, and saw
the shores of India rising on the horizon . At that time
young men going to the wonderland of India, were not
ashamed of dreaming dreams, and seeing visions ; and
this was the dream dreamt and the vision seen by
Sir William Jones, then simple Mr. Jones : —

‘ When I was at sea last August (that is in August
1783), on my voyage to this country (India) I had
long and ardently desired to visit, I found one even-
ing, on inspecting the observations of the day, that
India lay before us, Persia on our left, whilst a
breeze from AmKa blew nearly on our stem. A
situation so pleasing in itself and to me so new, could
not fail to awaken a train of reflections in a mind,
which had early been accustomed to contemplate
with delight the eventful histories and agreeable
fictions of this Eastern world. It gave me inexpres-
sible pleasure to find myself in the midst of so noble
an amphitheatre, almost encircled by the vast regions
of Asia, which has ever been esteemed the nurse of
sciences, the inventress of delightful and useful arts,
the scene of glorious actions, fertile in the produc-
dions of . human ■ geniu^, ^4. ^^finitely diversified in
Hhh foims of- religion and, ,gQv^riment, m the laws.

WHAT CAN INDIA TEACH US 1

33

manners, customs, and languages, as well as in the
features and complexions of men. I could not help
remarking how important and extensive a field was
yet unexplored, and how many solid advantages
unimproved.’

India wants more snch dreamers as that young
Mr. Jones, standing alone on the deck of Ifis vessel
and watching the sun diving into the sea — with the
memories of England behind and the hopes of India
before him, feeling the presence of Persia and its
ancient monarchs, and breathing the breezes of Arabia
and its glowing poetry. Such dreamers know how
to make their dreams come true, and how to change
their visions into realities.

And as it was a hundred years ago, so it is now;
or at least, so it may be now. There are many bright
dreams to be drea,mt about India, and many bright
deeds to be done in India, if only you will do them.
Though many great and glorious conquests have been
made in the history and literature of the East, since
the days when Sir William Jones landed at Calcutta,
depend upon it, no young Alexander here need despair
because there are no kingdoms left for him to conquer
on the ancient shores of the Indus and the Ganges.

pniBAPRASTHA ESTAl-Ji'. "

TRUTHFUL CHARACTER OF THE
HINDUS.

LEGTUJEE n.

In iny Erst Lecture I endeavoured to remove the
prejudice that everythiiig in India is strange, and so
different from the intellectual life which we are ac-
customed to in England that the twenty or twenty-
five years which a Civil servant has to spend in
the East seem often to him a kind of exile that
he must bear as well as he can, but that severs
him completely from all those higher pursuits by
which life is made enjoyable at - home. This need
not be so and ought not to be so, if only it is clearly
seen how almost every one of the higher interests
that make life worth living here in England, may
find as ample scope in India as in England.

To-day 1 shall have to grapple with another pre-
judice which is even more mischievous, because it
forms a kind of icy harrier between the Hindus and
their rulers, and makes anything like a feeling of
true fellowship between the two utterly impossible.

That prejudice consists in looking upon our stay
in India as a kind of moifuL exile, and in regarding
the Hindus as an inferior race, totally different from
ourselves in their moral character, and, more parti-
cularly in what forms the very foundation of the
English character, respect for truth.

TRUTHFUL CHARACTER OF THE HINDUS.

35

I believe there is nothing more disheartening to
any high-minded young man than the idea that he
■will have to spend his life among human beings
whom he can never respect or love — natives, as they
are called, not to use even more offensive names —
men whom he is taught to consider as not amenable
to the recognised principles of self-respect, upright-
ness, and veracity, and with whom therefore any com-
munity of inter^ts and action, much more any real
friendship, is supposed to be out of the question.

So often has that charge of untruthfulness been
repeated, and so generally is it now accepted, that it
seems almost Quixotic to try to fight against it.

Nor should I venture to fight this almost hopeless
battle, if I were not convinced that such a charge,
like all charges brought against a whole nation, rests
on the most flimsy induction, and that it has done,
is doing, and will continue to do more mischief than
anything that even the bitterest enemy of English
dominion in India could have invented. If a young
man who goes to India as a Civil servant or as a
military officer, goes there fully convinced that the
people whom he is to meet with are all liars, liars
by nature or by national instinct, never restrained
in their dealings by any regard for truth, never to be
trusted on their word, need we wonder at the feelings
of disgust -with which he thinks of the Hindus, even
before he has seen them ; the feelings of distrust with
which he approaches them, and the contemptuous way
in which he treats them when brought into contact
with them for the transaction of public nr private
business ? "When such tares have once been sown by
the enemy, it will be difficult to gather them up.
It has become almost an article of ffiith with every

36

UECTUBE II.

Indian Civil servant that all Indians are liars ; naj,
I know I shall never be forgiven for my heresy in
venturing to doubt it. .

Now, quite apart from India, I feel most strongly
that every one of these international condemnations is
to be deprecated, not only for the sake of the self-
conceited and uncharitable state of mind from which
they spring, and which they serve to strengthen and
confirm, but for purely logical reasons also, namely
for the reckless and slovenly character of the induc-
tion on which such conclusions rest. Because a man
has travelled in Greece and has been cheated by his
dragoman, or been carried off by brigands, does it
foUow that all Greeks, ancient as well as modern, are
cheats and robbers, or that they approve of cheating
and robbery 1 And because in Calcutta, or Bombay,
or Madras, Indians who are brought before judges,
or who hang about the law courts and the lunsaans,
are not distinguished by an unreasoning and uncom-
promising love of truth, is it not a very vicious
induction to say, in these days of careful reasoning,
that all Hindus are liars^ — particularly if you bear in
mind that, according to the latest census, the num-
ber of inhabitants of that vast country amounts to 253
millions. Are all these 253 millions of human beings
to he set down as liars, because some hundreds, say
even some thousands of Indians, when they are brought
to an English court of law, bn suspicion of having
committed a theft or a murder, do not speak the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing hut the truth 1
Would an English sailor, if brought before a dark-
skinned judge, who spoke English with a strange
accent, bow down before him and confess at once
any misdeed that he may have committed ; and

TEUTHFUL CHAEACTEE OF THE HINDUS.

37

'vvo'uld all his mates rush forward and eagerly bear
witness against him, when he had got himself into
trouble?

The rules of induction are general, but they de-
pend on the subjects to which they are applied.
We may, to follow an Indian proverb, judge of
a whole field of rice by tasting one or two grains
only, but if we apply this rule to human beings, we
are sure to fall into the same mistake as the English
chaplain who had once, on board an Enghsh vessel,
christened a French child, and who remained fully
convinced for the rest of his life that all French
babies had very long noses.

I can hardly think of anything that you could
safely predicate of all the inhabitants of India, and
I confess to a little nervous tremor whenever I see a
sentence beginning with ‘ The people of India,’ or
even with ‘All the Brahmans,’ or ‘All the Buddhists.’
What follows is almost invariably wrong. There is a
greater difference between an Afghan, a Sikh, a Hindu-
stani, a Bengalese, and a Dravidian than between an
Englishman, a Frenchman, a G-erman, and a Russian — •
yet aH are classed as Hindus, and all are supposed to
fall under the same sweeping condemnation.

Let me read you what Sir John Malcolm says about
the diversity of character to be observed by any one
who has eyes to observe, among the different races
whom we promiscuously caU Hindus, and whom we
promiscuously condemn as Hindus. After describing
the people of Bengal as weak in body and timid in
mind, and those below Calcutta as the lowest of our
Hindu subjects, both in character and appearance, he
continues : ‘ But from the moment you enter the dis-
trict of Behar, the Hindu inhabitants are a race of men.

gg lecture n.

generally speaking, not more distinguished by their
lofty stature and robust frame than

some of the finest qualities of the mmd They are

brave, generous, humane, and their truth is as re-
markable as their courage. • xi

But because I feel bound to pret®* “S®’""*
indiscrimbating abuse that baa been heaped on t ie
people of India from the Hlmtlaya to Ceylon do not
suppose that it is my -wish or intention to draw an
MmI picture of India, leaving out all the dark
shades, and giving yon nothing but ■sweetness and
light.’ Having never been in India myself, I can
only claim for myself the right and duty of every
historian, namely, the right of collecting as much
information as possible, and the duty to sdt it ac-
cording to the recognised rules of historical criticism.
My chief sources of information with regard to^ the
national character of the Indians in ancient times
will be the works of Greek writers and the literature
of the ancient Indians themselves. Tor later times
we must depend on the statements of the various
conquerors of India, who are not always the most
lenient judges of those whom they may ^find it more
difScult to rule than to conquer. For the last
century to the present day, I shall have to appeal,
partly to the authority of those who, after spending
an active life in India and among the Indians, have
given us the benefit of their experience in published
works, partly to the testimony of a number of dis-
tinguished Civil servants and of Indian gentlemen
also, whose personal acquaintance I have enjoyed in
England, in France, and in Germany.

As I have chiefly to address myself to those who
will themselves be the rulers and administrators of

truthi-ul character oe the hinehs. 3»

India in the future, allow me to begin with the
opinions which some of the most emiuent, and, I
believe, the most judicious among the Indian Civil
servants of the past have formed and deliberately ex-
pressed on the point which we are to-day discussing,
namely, the veracity or want of veracity among the

Hindus. i,' t, V,

And here I must begin with a remark which has

been made by others also, namely, that the 0ml
servants who went to India in the beginning of t is
century, and under the auspices of the old East-Indi^
Company, many of whom I had the honour aim
pleasure of knowing when I first came to England,
seemed to have seen a great deal more of native life,
native manners, and native charaoter than those w om
I had to examine five-and-twenty years ago, and who
are now, after a distinguished 'Career, coming baek^ to
England. India is no longer the distant island which
it was, where each Crusoe had to make a home for
himself as beat he could. With the short and easy
voyages from England to India and from India to
England, with the frequent mails, and the telegrams,
and the Anglo-Indian newspapers, official life m India
has assumed the character of a temporary exile rather,
which even English ladies are now more ready to
share than fifty years ago. This is a difficulty
which icannot he removed, but must he met, an
which, I believe, can best be met by inspiring the
new OivU servants with new and higher interests

during their stay in India. j -d„

I knew the late Professor Wilson, our Boden Pro-
fessor of Sanskrit at Oxford, for many years, and
often listened with deep interest to his Indian
reminiscences.

LECTUEE n.

40

Let me read you wliat he, Professor Wilson, says
of Ms native friends, associates, and servants^ :

‘ I lived, both from necessity and choice, very much
amongst the Hindus, and had opportunities of be-
coming acquainted with them in a greater variety of
situations than those in which they usually come
under the observation of Europeans. In the Calcutta
mint, for instance, I was in daily personal communi-
cation with a numerous body of artificers, mechanics,
and labourers, and always found amongst them
cheerful and unwearied industry, good-humoured
compliance with the will of their superiors, and a
readiness to make whatever exertions were de-
manded from them : there was among them no
drunkenness, no disorderly conduct, no insubordi-
nation. It would not be true to say that there was
no dishonesty, but it was comparatively rare, inva-
riably petty, and much less formidable than, I be-
lieve, it is necessary to guard against in other mints
in other countries. There was considerable skiU and
ready docihty. So far from there being any servility,
there was extreme frankness, and I should say that
where there is confidence without fear, frankness is
one of the most universal features in the Indian
character. Let the people feel sure of the temper
and good-will of their superiors, and there is an end
of reserve and timidity, without the slightest depar-
ture from respect . , .

Then, speaking of the much-abused Indian Pandits,
he says : ‘ The studies which engaged my leisure
brought me into connection with the men of learning,
and in them I found the similar merits of industry,

^ Mill’s History of Britisli India, ed. Wilson, vol. i. p. 375.

TEUTHFUL CHAEACTEE OP THE HINDUS. 41‘

intelligence, cheerfulness, frankness, with others
peculiar to their avocation. A very common charac-
teristic of these men, and of the Hindus especially,
was a simplicity truly childish, and a total un-
acquaintance with the business and manners of life.
Where that feature was lost, it was chiefly by those
who had been long familiarwith Europeans. Amongst
the Pandits, or the learned Hindus, there prevailed
great ignorance and great dread of the European
character. There is, indeed, very little intercourse
between any class of Europeans and Hindu scholars,
and it is not wonderful, therefore, that mutual mis-
apprehension should prevail.’

Speaking, lastly, of the higher classes in Calcutta
and elsewhere. Professor Wilson says that he wit-
nessed among them ‘ polished manners, clearness and
comprehensiveness of understanding, liberality of feel-
ing and independence of principle that would have
stamped them gentlemen in any country in the
world.’ ‘ With some of this class,’ he adds, ‘ I formed
friendships which I trust to enjoy through life.’

I have often heard Professor Wilson speak in the
same, and in even stronger terms of his old friends
in India, and his correspondence with Ram Comui
Sen, the grandfather of Keshub Chunder Sen, a most
orthodox, not to say bigoted, Hindu, which has lately
been published, shows on what intimate terms
Englishmen and Hindus may be, if only the advances
are made on the English side.

There is another Professor of Sanskrit, of whom
your University may well be proud, and who could
speak on this subject with far greater authority than
I can. He too will tell you, and I have no doubt
has often told you, that if only you look out for

42

LECTUIIE II.

friends among tbe Hindus, you will and them, and

you may trust them. _

There is one book which for many years I have
been in the habit of recommending, and another
against which I have always been warning those
of the candidates for the Indian Civil Seryke whom
I happened to see at Oxford; and I believe both
the advice and the warning have in several cases
borne the very best fruit. The book which I consider
most mischievous, nay, which I hold responsible for
some of the greatest misfortunes that have happened
to India, is Mill s History of British India, even with
the antidote against its poison, which is supplied by
Professor Wilson’s notes. The book which I recom-
mend, and which I wish might be published again
in a cheaper form, so as to make it more generally
accessible, is Colonel Sleemans Rambles and Re-
collections of an Indian Official, published in 1844,
but written originally in 1835-1836.

Mill’s History, no doubt, yon all know, particularly
the Candidates for the Indian Civil Service, who,
•I am sorry to say, are recommended to read it and are
examined" in it Still, in order to substantiate my
strong condemnation of the book, I shall have to give
a few proofs:—

Mill in his estimate of the Hindu character is
chiefly guided by Dubois, a French missionaiy, and by
Orme and Buchanan, Tennant, and W ard, all of them

neither very competent nor very unprejudiced judges.
Mill h however, picks out ail that is most unfavourable
from their works, and omits the qualifications which
even these writers felt bound to give to their whoLsale

^ Mill's History, ed. Wilson, i. p. 368.

TBUTHFUL CHAEACTEE, OF THE HIEDTJS.

43

condemnation of the Hindus. He quotes as serious,
for instance, what was said in joke namely, that ‘ a
Brahman is an ant’s nest of lies and impostures.’
Next to the charge of untruthfulness. Mill upbraids
the Hindus for what he calls their litigiousness. He
writes^: ‘As often as courage fails them in seeking
more daring gratification to their hatred and re-
venge, their malignity finds a vent in the channel of
litigation.’ Without imputing dishonourable mo-
tives, as Mill does, the same fact might be stated in a
different way, by saving, ‘As often as their conscience
and respect of law keep them from seeking more
daring gratification to their hatred and revenge, say by
murder or poisoning, their trust in English justice leads
them to appeal to our Courts of Law.’ Dr. Eobertson,
in his ‘Historical Disquisitions concerning Indian’
seems to have considered the litigious subtlety of the
Hindus as a sign of high civilisation rather than of
barbarism, but he is sharply corrected by Mr. Mill,
who tells him that ‘nowhere is this subtlety carried
higher than among the wildest of the Irish.’ That
courts of justice, like the English, in which a verdict
was not to be obtained, as foimerly in Mohammedan
courts, by bribes and corruption, should at first have
proved very attractive to the Hindus, need not sur-
prise us. But is. it really true that the Hindus are
more fond of litigation than other nations 1 If we
consult Sir Thomas Munro, the eminent Governor of
Madras, and the powerful advocate of the Eyotwar
settlements, he tells us in so many words ‘ I have
had ample opportunity of observing the Hindus in

' Mill’s History, ed. Wilson, vol.i. p. 325. * L. c. vol.i. p. 329.

® P. 217. ■* Mill’s History, vol. i. p. 339.

44

LECTURE II.

every situation, and I can affirm, that they are not
litigious h’

But Mill goes further still, and in one place
he actually assures his readers ^ that a ‘ Brahman
may put a man to death when he lists.’ In fact,
he represents the Hindus as such a monstrous mass
of all vices that, as Colonel Vans Kennedy ® remar’ked,
society could not have held together, if it had really
consisted of such reprobates only. Kor does he seem
to see the full bearing of his remarks. Sui’ely, if
a Brahman might, as he says, put a man to death
whenever he lists, it would be the strongest testimony
in their favour that you hardly ever hear of theii-
availing themselves of such a privilege, to say nothing
of the fact — and a fact it is— that, according to
statistics, the number of capital sentences was one
in every 10,000 in England, but only one in every
million in Bengal i

Colonel Sleeman’s Eambles are less known than
they deserve to be. To give you an idea of the
man, I must read you some extracts from the book.

V His sketches being originally addressed to his
sister, this is how he writes to her : — •

' My dear Sister,

‘Were anyone to ask your countrymen in India,
what had been their greatest source of pleasure
while there, perhaps, nine in ten would say, the
letters which they receive from their sisters at

^ Marnij Till. 43, says : ^ Neither a King bimself nor liis officers
must ever promote litigation; nor ever neglect a lawsuit instituted
by others.^

^ Mill’s History, vol. i, p. 327, ® L. c. p. 368.

^ See Elphinstone, History of India, ed. Cowell, p. 219 note*
‘ Of tlie 232 sentences of death 64 only were carried put in Eng-
land, while the 59 sentences of death in Bengal were all carried out/

TRUTHFUL CHARACTER OF THE HINDUS.

45

home . . . . And while thus contributing so much to
our happiness, they no doubt tend to make us better
citizens of the world, and servants of government,
than we should otherwise be ; for in our “ struggles
through life” in India, we have all, more or less,
an eye to the approbation of those circles which our
kind sisters represent, — who may therefore be con-
sidered in the exalted light of a valuable species of
unjiciid magistracy to the government of India.’ ,

There is a touch of the old English chivalry even
in these few words addressed to a sister whose
approbation he values, and with whom he hoped to
spend the winter of his days. Having been, as he
confesses, idle in answering letters, or rather, too
busy to find time for long letters, he made use of
his enforced leisure, while on his way from the
Nerbuddah river to the Himmaleh mountains, in
search of health, to give to his sister a full account
of his impressions and experiences in India, Though
what he wrote was intended at first ‘ to interest and
amuse his sister only and the other members of his
family at home,’ he adds in a more serious tone :
‘Of one thing I must beg you to be assured, that
I have nowhere indulged in fiction, either in the
narrative, the recollections, or the conversations.
What I relate on the testimony of others, I believe
to be true ; and what I relate on my own, you may
rely upon as being so.’

When placing his volumes before the public at
large in 1844, he expresses a hope that they may
‘ tend to make the people of India better understood
by those of our countrymen whose destinies are cast
among them, and inspire more kindly feelings towards
them.’

4.6

LECTURE IL

You may ask wky I consider Colonel Sleeman so
trustworthy an authority on the Indian, character,
more trustworthy, for instance, than even so accurate
and unprejudiced an observer as Professor Wilson.
My answer is — because Wilson lived chiefly in Cal-
cutta, while Colonel Sleeman saw India, where alone
the true India can be seen, namely, in the village-
communities. For many years he was employed as
Commissioner for the suppression of Thuggee. The
Thuggs were professional assassins, who committed
their murders under a kind of religious sanction.
They were originally ‘ all Mohammedans, but for a long
time past Mohammedans and Hindus had been indis-
criminately associated in the gangs, the former class,
however, still predominating h’

In order to hunt up these gangs, Colonel Sleeman
had constantly to live among the people in the
country, to gain their confidence, and to watch the
good as well as the bad features in their character.

Yow what Colonel Sleeman continually insists on
is that no one knows the Indians who does not know
them in their vElage-communities — ^what we should
now call their -eommunes. It is that village-life
which in India has given its peculiar impress to the
Indian character,, more so than in any other country
we know. When in Indian history we hear so much
of kings and emperors, of r4jahs and mah4r4jahs,
w*e are apt to think of India as an Eastern monarchy,
ruled by a central power, and without any trace of that
self-government which forms the pride of England.
But those who have most carefully studied the po-
litical life of India tell you the very opposite.

' Sir Ch. Trevelyan, Ohristianity and Hinduism, 1882, p. 42.

TBUTHFUL CHABACTJEB OF THE HINDUS.

47

Tlie political unit, or the social cel in India has
always been, and, in spite of repeated foreign con-
quests, is stil the vllage-community. Some of these
political units will occasionally combine or be combined
for common purposes (such a confederacy being called
a gr^ma^Ma), but each is perfect in itself. When we
read in the laws of Manu^ of ofiBcers appointed to
rule over ten, twenty, a hundred, or a thousand of
these villages, that means no more than that they
were responsible for the colection of taxes, and
generally for the good behaviour of these vilages.
y-' And when, in later times, we hear of circles of 84
vllages, the so-called Chourasees (jKaturaslti^), and
of 360 villages, this too seems to refer to fiscal
arrangements only. To the ordinary Hindu, I mean
to ninety-nine in every hundred, the vllage was
his world, and the sphere of public opinion, with its
beneficial infl.uences on individuals, seldom extended
beyond the horizon of his vilage
V Colonel Sleeman was one of the first who called

attention to the existence of these vilage-comm uni-
ties in India, and their importance in the social fabric

' Manu VII. 115.

^ H. M. Elliot, Supplement to tbe Grlossary of Indian Terms, p. 15 1.

® I see from Dr. Hunter's latest statistical tables that the whole
number of towns and villages in British India amounts to 493,429.
Out of this number 448,320 have less than 1000 inhabitants, and
may be called villages. In Bengal, where the growth of towns has
been most encouraged through Government establishments, the
total number of homesteads is 117,042, and more than half of
these contain less than 200 inhabitants. Only 10,077 towns in
Bengal have more than 1000 inhabitants, that is, no more than
about a seventeenth part of all the settlements are anything but
what we should call substantial villages. In the Hoith- Western
Provinces the last census gives us 105,124 villages, against 297
towns. See Times, 14th Aug. 1882,

48

LBCTUEE II.

of the -wliole country both in ancient and in modem
times ; and though they have since become far better
known and celebrated through the writings of Sir
Henry Maine, it is still both interesting and instruc-
tive to read Colonel Sleeman’s account. He writes
as a mere observer, and uninfluenced as yet by any
theories on the development of early social and poli-
tical life among the Aryan nations in general.

1 do not mean to say that Colonel Sleeman was the
first who pointed out the palpable fact that the whole
of India is parcelled out into estates of villages. Even
so early an observer as Megasthenes^ seems to have
been struck by the same fact when he says that ‘in
India the husbandmen with their wives and children
live in the country, and entirely avoid going into
town.’ What Colonel Sleeman was the first to point
out was that all the native virtues of the Hindus
are intimately connected with their village-life.

That village-life, however, is naturally the least
known to English officials, nay, the very presence of
an English official is often said to be sufficient to
drive away those native virtues which distinguish
both the private life and the public administration
of justice and equity in an Indian village^. Take a
man out of his village-community, and you remove
him from all the restraints of society. He is out of

^ Ancient India as described by Megastbenes and Arrian, by
McCrindle, p. 42.

2 ' Perjury seems to be committed by the meanest and encouraged
by some of the better sort among the Hindus and Mussulmans^
with as little remorse as if it were a proof of ingenuity, or even
a merit/ Sir W. Jones, Address to Grand Jury at Calcutta, in
Mill’s History of India, to! i. p. 324. ‘The longer we possess a
province, the more common and grave does perjury become/ Sir G.
Campbell, quoted by S. Johnson, Oriental Eeligions, India, p. 288,

TEUTHFUL CHAEACTER OF THE HINDUS.

49

his element, and, under temptation, is more likely to
go wrong than to remain true to the traditions of
his home-life. Even between village and village the
usual restraints of public morality are not always
recognised. What would he called theft or robbery
at home, is called a successful raid or conquest if
directed against distant villages; and what would
be falsehood or trickery in private life is honoured
by the name of policy and diplomacy if successful
against strangers. On the other hand, the rules of
hospitality applied only to people of other villages,
and a man of the same village could never claim the
right of an Atiihi, or guest b

Let us hear now what Colonel Sleeman tells us
about the moral character of the members of these
village-communities^, and let us not forget that the
Commissioner for the suppression of Thuggee had
ample opportunities of seeing the dark as well as
the blight ideas of the Indian character.

He assures us that falsehood or lying between
members of the same village is almost unknown.
Speaking of some of the most savage tribes, the
Gonds, for instance, he maintains that nothing would
induce them to tell a lie, though they would think
nothing of lifting a herd of cattle from a neighbour-
ing plain.

Of these men it might perhaps be said that they
have not yet learned the value of a lie ; yet even
such blissful ignorance ought to count in a nation s
character. But I am not pleading here for Gonds, or
Bhils, or Santhals, and other non- Aryan tribes. I am
speaking of the Aryan and more or less civilized in-

^ VasishiJ^a, translated by Biibler, VIII. 8, ^ See Note G.

50

LECTUEB II.

liaHtants of India. Now among them, where rights,
duties, and interests begin to clash in one and the
same village, public opinion, in its limited sphere,
seems strong enough to- deter even an evil-disposed
person from telling a falsehood. The fear of the
gods also has not yet lost its powerh In most
villages there is a sacred tree, a pipal-tree (Ficns
Indica), and the gods are supposed to delight to sit
among its leaves, and listen to the music of their
rustling. The deponent takes one of these leaves in
his hand, and invokes the god, who sits above him,
to crush him, or those dear to him, as he crushes the
leaf in his hand, if he speaks anything but the truth.
He then plucks and crushes the leaf, and states what
he has to say.

The pipal-tree is generally supposed to be occu-
pied by one of the Hindu deities, while the large
cotton-tree, particularly among the wilder tribes, is
supposed to be the abode of local gods, all the more
terrible, because entrusted with the police of a small
settlement only. In their punch^yets, Sleeman tells
us, men adhere habitually and religiously to the
truth, and ‘ I have had before me hundreds of cases,’
he says, ‘ in which a man’s property, liberty, and life
has depended upon his telling a lie, and he has
refused to tell it.’

Could many an English judge say the samel

In their own tribunals under the pipal-tree or
cotton-tree,, imagination commonly did what the
deities, who were supposed to preside, had the credit
of doing. If the deponent told a lie, he believed
that the god who sat on his sylvan throne above

^ Sleemaii, yoL ii. p, in.

TRUTHFUL CHARACTER OP THE HINDUS. 61

him, and searched the heart of man, must know it ;
and from that moment he knew no rest, he was
always in dread of his vengeance. If any accident
happened to him, or to those dear to him, it was
attributed to this offended deity ; and if no accident
happened, some evil was brought about by his own
disordered imagination It was an excellent super-
stition, inculcated in the ancient law-books, that the
ancestors watched the answer of a witness, because,
according as it was true or false, they themselves
would go to heaven or to hell ^.

Allow me to read you the abstract of a conversation
between an English official and a native law-officer as
reported by Colonel Sleeman. The native lawyer
was asked what he thought would he the effect of
an act to dispense with oaths on the Koran and
Ganges-water, and to substitute a solemn declaration
made in the name of God, and under the same penal
liabilities as if the Koran or Ganges-water had been
in the deponent’s hand.

‘ I have practised in the courts,’ the native said,

‘ for thirty years, and during that time I have found
only three kinds of witnesses — two of whom would,
by such an act, be left precisely where they were,
while the third would be released by it from a very
salutary check.’

‘And, pray, what are the three classes into which
you divide the witnesses in our courts?’

‘ First, Sir, are those who will always tell the truth,
whether they are required to state what they know
in the form of an oath or not.’

‘ Do you think this a large class ?’

* Vashy/ia XVI. 32.

* Sleeman, vol. ii. p. ri6.

52

LECTURE II.

‘ Yes, I think it is ; and I have found among them
many whom nothing on earth could make to swerve
from the truth. Do what you please, you could
never frighten or bribe them into a deliberate
falsehood.

‘ The second are those who will not hesitate to tell
a lie when they have a motive for it, and are not re-
strained by an oath. In taking an oath, they are
afraid of two things, the anger of God, and the
odium of men.

‘ Only three days ago,’ he continued, ‘I required a
power of attorney from a lady of rank, to enable me
to act for her in a case pending before the court in
this town. It was given to me by her brother, and
two witnesses came to declare that she had given it.
“ ISFow,” said I, “ this lady is known to live under the
curtain, and you will be asked by the judge whether
you saw her give this paper: what will you say!”
They both replied — “ If the j udge asks us the question
without an oath we will say ‘Yes’ — it will save
much trouble, and we know that she diA give the
paper, though we did not really see her give it ; but
if he puts the Koran into our hands, we must say
‘ JVb,’ for we should otherwise be pointed at by all
the town as pegured wretches — our enemies would
soon tell everybody that we had taken a false oath.”

‘Now,’ the native lawyer went on, ‘ the form of an
oath is a great check on this sort of persons.

‘ The third class consists of men who will tell lies
whenever they have a suflicient motive, whether
they have the Koran or Ganges-water in their hand
or not. Nothing will ever prevent their doing so ;
and the declaration which you propose w'ould be just
as well as any other for them,’

TBUTHFUL CHAKACTER OF THE HINDUS.

53

‘ Which class do you consider the most numerous
of the three 1 ’

‘ I consider the second the most numerous, and wish
the oath to he retained for them.’

‘ That is, of all the men you see examined in our
courts, you think the most come under the class of
those who will, under the influence of strong motives,
tell lies, if they have not the Koran or Ganges-water
in their hands 1 ’

‘ Yes.’

‘But do not a great many of those whom you
consider to be included among the second class come
from the village-communities,— the peasantry of the
country

‘Yes.’

‘And do you not think that the greatest part of
those men who wiU tell lies in the court, under the in-
fluence of strong motives, unless they have the Koran
or Ganges-water in their hands, would refuse to tell
lies, if questioned before the people of their villages,
among the circle in which they live 1 ’

‘ Of course I do ; three-fourths of those who do not
scruple to lie in the courts, would be ashamed to lie
before their neighbours, or the elders of their village.’

‘ You think that the people of the village-commu-
nities are more ashamed to tell lies before their
neighbours than the people of towns V

‘ Much more — there is no comparison.’

‘And the people of towns and cities bear in India
but a small proportion to the people of the village-
communities 1’

‘ I should think a very small proportion indeed.’

‘ Then you think that in the mass of the population
of India, out of our courts, the first clas% or those who

54 ' LECTURE 11.

speak truth, whether they have the Koran or Ganges-
water in their hands or not, would he found more
numerous than the other two

‘ Certainly I do ; if they were always to he ques-
tioned before their neighbours or elders, so that they
could feel that their neighbours and elders could
know what they say.’

It was from a simple sense of justice that I felt
bound to quote this testimony of Colonel Sleeman
as to the truthful character of the natives of India,
when to themsehes. My interest lies altogether
with the people of India, when left to themselves, and
historically I should like to draw a line after the
year one thousand after Christ. When you read the
atrocities committed by the Mohammedan conquerors
of India from that time to the time when England
stepped in and, whatever may be said by her envious
critics, made, at all events, the broad principles of our
common humanity respected once more in India, the
wonder, to my mind, is how any nation could have
survived such an Inferno without being turned into
devils themselves.

Now, it is quite true that during the two thousand
years which precede the time of Mahmud of Gazni,
India has had but few foreign visitors, and few foreign
critics ; still it is surely extremely strange that when-
ever, either in Greek, or in Chinese, or in Persian,
or in Arab writings, we meet with any attempts
at describing the distinguishing features in the
national character of the Indians, regard for truth
and justice should always be mentioned first.

Ktesias, the famous Greek physician of Artaxerxes
Mnemon (present at the battle of Cunaxa, 404 b. c.),
the first Greek writer who tells us anything about

TRUTHFUL CHARACTER OF THE HINDUS.

5S

ttie character of the Indians, such as he heard it
described at the Persian court, has a special chapter
‘ On the justice of the Indians b’

Megasthenes^, the ambassador of Seleucus Nicator
at the court of Sandrocottus in Palibothra (P^feli-
putra, the modern Patna), states that thefts were
extremely rare, and that they honoured truth and
virtue

Arrian (in the second century, the pupil of Epi-
ctetus), when speaking of the public overseers or
superintendents in India, says*: ‘ They oversee what
goes on in the country or towns, and report every-
thing to the king, where the people have a king, and
to the magistrates, where the people are self-governed,
and it is against use and wont for these to give in a
false report ; hut indeed no Indian is accused of lying ®.

The Chinese, who come next in order of time, bear
the same, I believe, unanimous testimony in favour
of the honesty and veracity of the Hindus. Let me
quote Hio'uen-thsang, the most famous of the Chinese
Buddhist pilgrims, who visited India in the seventh
century ‘ Though the Indians,’ he writes, ‘ are of a
light temperament, they are distinguished by the
straightforwardness and honesty of their character.
With regard to riches, they never take anything
unjustly; with regard to justice, they make even
excessive concessions .... Straightforwardness is the
distinguishing feature of their administration,’

^ Ktesiae Fragmenta (ed. Didot), p. 8i.

See Indian Antiquary, 1876, p. 333.

® Megasthenis Fragments (ed. Didot) in Fragm. Histor, Graec.
vol. ii. p. 426 b : 'H^rfieiav re ondas Km aper^v mrohi^ovrai.

* Indica, cap. xii. 6.

® See McOrindle in Indian Antiquary, 1876, p. 93.

* Yol. ii. p. 83.

56

LECTimE II.

If we turn to tlie accounts given by the Moham-
medan conquerors of India, we find Idrisi, in his
Geography (written in the nth century), summing up
their opinion of the Indians in the following words ^ :

‘The Indians are naturally inclined to justice, and
never depart from it in their actions. Their good
faith, honesty, and fidelity to their engagements are
well known, and they are so famous for these qualities
that people flock to their country from every side.’

In the thirteenth century we have the testimony of
Marco Tolo^ who thus speaks of the Ahraiaman, a
name by which he seems to mean the Brahmans who,
though not traders by profession, might well have
been employed for great commercial transactions by
the king. This was particularly the case during
times which the Brahmans would call times of dis-
tressi when many things were allowed which at
other times were forbidden by the laws. ‘ You must
know,’ Marco Polo says, ‘ that these Ahraiaman are the
best merchants in the world, and the most truthful,
for they would not tell a lie for anything on earth.’

In the fourteenth centurv we have Friar Jordanus,
who' goes out of his way to tell us that the people
of Lesser India (South and Western India) are true
in speech and eminent in justice

In the fifteenth century Kamal-eddih Abd-errazak
Samarkaudi (1413-1482), who went as ambassador
of the Khakan to the prince of Kalikut and to the
King of Vidy^nagara (about 1440-1445), bears testi-
mony to the perfect security which merchants enjoy
in that country t

^ Elliot, History of India, vol. i, p.

^ Marco Polo, ed. H. Yule, vol. iL p. 350. ^

^ Notices des Manuserits, tom. xiv. p. 436. He seems to laa^e

TRUTHFUL CHARACTER OF THE HINDUS.

57

In tlie sixteenth century, Abu Fazl, the minister
of the Emperor Akbar, says in his Ayin Akbari : ‘Tiie
Hindus are religious, affable, cheerful, lovers of justice,
given to retirement, able in business, admirers of truth,
grateful and of unbounded fidelity; and their soldiers
know not what it is to fly from the field of battle b’

And even in quite modern times the Mohammedans
seem willing to admit that the Hindus, at all events
in their dealings with Hindus, are more straight-
forward than Mohammedans in their dealings with
Mohammedans.

Thus Meer Sulamut Ali, a venerable old Mussul-
man, and, as Colonel Sleeman says, a most valuable
public servant, was obliged to admit that ‘ a Hindu
may feel himself authorised to take in a Mussulman,
and might even think it meritorious to do so ; but
he would never think it meritorious to take in one
of his own religion. There are no less than seventy-
two sects of Mohammedans ; and every one of these
sects would not only take in the followers- of every
other religion on earth, but every member of every
one of the other seventy-one sects ; and the nearer
that sect is to his own, the greater the merit of
taking in its members b’

So I could go on quoting from book after book,
and again and again we should see how it was love
of truth that struck all the people who came in
contact with India, as the prominent feature in the
national character of its inhabitants. No one ever
accused them of falsehood. There must surely be

been one of the lirs^ to state that the Persian text of the Kalilah
and Dimna was derived from the wise people of India.

^ Bamuei Johnson, India, p, 294.

- ® Sleeman, 'Hambies, vol.. i. p. 63^

58

LECTURE II.

some ground for ttis, for it is not a remark that is
frequently made by travellers in foreign countries,
even in our time, that their inhabitants invariably
speak the truth. Eead the accounts of English
travellers in France, and you will find very little
said about French honesty and veracity, while French
accounts of England are seldom without a fling at
Perfide Albion !

But if all this is true, how is it, you may well
ask, that public opinion in England is so decidedly
unfriendly to the people of India; at the utmost
tolerates and patronizes them, but will never trust
them, never treat them on terms of equality I

I have already hinted at some of the reasons.
Public opinion with regard to India is made up in
England chiefly by those who have spent their lives
in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, or some other of the
principal towns in India. The native element in
such towns contains mostly the most unfavourable
specimens of the Indian population. An insight into
the domestic life of the more respectable classes, even
in towns, is difficult to obtain ; and, when it is
obtained, it is extremely difficult to Judge of their
manners according to our standard of what is proper,
respectable, or gentlemanlike. The misunderstandings
are frequent and often most grotesque ; and such, we
must confess., is human nature, that when we hear
the difierent and often most conflicting accounts of
the character of the Hindus, we are naturally sceptical
with regard to unsuspected virtues among them,
while we are quite disposed to accept unfavourable
accounts of their character.

Lest I should seem to be pleading too much on
the native side of the question, and to exaggerate

TRUTHFUL CHARACTER OF THE HINDUS.

59

the difficulty of forming a correct estimate of the
character of the Hindus, let me appeal to one of
the most distinguished, learned, and judicious mem-
bers of the Indian Civil Service, the author of
the History of India, Mountstuart Elph instone.
‘ Englishmen in India h’ he says, ‘ have less oppor-
tunity than might be expected of forming opiinions
of the native character. Even in England, few know
much of the people beyond their own class, and
what they do know, they learn from newspapers
and publications of a description which does not exist
in India. In that country also, religion and manners
put bars to our intimacy with the natives, and limit
the number of transactions as well .as the free com-
munication of opinions. We know nothing of the
interior of families but by report, and have no share
in those numerous occurrences of life in which the
amiable parts of character are most exhibited.’
‘Missionaries of a different religion, judges, police-
magistrates, officers of revenue or customs, and even
diplomatists, do not see the most virtuous portion
of a nation, nor any portion, unless when influenced
by passion, or .occupied by some personal interest.
What we do see we judge by our own standard.
We conclude that a man who dies like a child on
slight occasions, must always be incapable of acting
or suffering with dignity; and that one who allows
himself to be .called a liar would not he ashamed
of any baseness. Our writers also confound the
distinctions of time and place ; they combine in one
character the Maratta and the Bengalese ; and tax
the present generation with the crimes of the heroes
of the Mah4bh4rata. It might be argued, in oppo-.

^ Elphinstone's History of India, ed. Go well, p. 213.

«0

LECTUBE II.

sition to many tinfavouraLle testimonies, tliat those
who have known the Indians longest have always
the best opinion of them ; but this is rather a
compliment to human nature than to them, since it is
true of every other people. It is more in point, that
all persons who have retired from India think better
of the people they have left, after comparing them
with others, even of the most justly admired nations.’

But what is still more extraordinary than the
ready acceptance of judgmejits unfavourable to the
character of the Hindus, is the determined way in
which public opinion, swayed by the statements ol
certain unfavourable critics, has persistently ignored
the evidence which members of the Civil Service,
officers and statesmen — men of the highest authority —
have given again and again, in direct opposition to
these unfavourable opinions. Here, too, I must ask
to be allowed to quote at least a few of these
witnesses on the other side.

Warren Hastings thus speaks of the Hindus in
general : ‘ They are gentle and benevolent, more
susceptible of gratitude for kindness shown them,
and less prompted to vengeance for wrongs inflicted
than any people on the face of the earth ; faithful,
affectionate, submissive to legal authority.’

Bishop Heber said! ; ‘ The Hindus are brave,
courteous, intelligent, most eager for knowledge and
improvement; sober, industrious, dutiful to parents,
affectionate to their children, uniformly gentle and
patient, and more easily affected by kindness and
attention to their w^’ants and feelings than any people
I ever met with V ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

’ SamuelJolinson, 1. c. p. 293.

TRUTHFUL CHARACTER OF THE HINDUS.

61

ElpHnstone states : ‘ No set of people among the
Hindus are so depraved as the dregs of our own
great towns. The villagers are everywhere amiable,
affectionate to their families, kind to their neighbours,
and towards all but the government honest and
sincere. Including the Thugs and Dacoits, the mass
of crime is less in India than in England. The Thugs
are almost a separate nation, and the Dacoits are
desperate ruffians in gangs. The Hindus are mild
and gentle people, more merciful to prisoners than
\ any other Asiatics. Their freedom from gross de-

/ bauchery is the point in which they appear to most

advantage ; and their superiority in purity of manners
is not flattering to our self-esteem

Yet Elphinstone can be most severe on the real
faults of the people of India. He states that, at
present, want of veracity is one of their prominent
vices, but he adds ^ ‘that such deceit is most com-
mon in people connected with government, a class
y which spreads far in India, as, from the nature of the
land-revenue, the lowest villager is often obliged to
resist force by fraud®.’

Sir John Malcolm writes*: ‘I have hardly ever
known where a person did understand the language,
or where a calm communication was made to a native
of India, through a well-informed and trustworthy
medium, that the result did not prove, that what had
at first been stated as falsehood, had either proceeded
fi'om fear, or from misapprehension. I by no means
wish to state that our Indian subjects are more free
from this vice than other nations that occupy a nearly

'- 4 '" ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ .

^ See History of India, pp. 375-381.

p. 215. ® L. c. p. 218.

^ Mill's History of India, ed. "Wilson, vol. i p. 370.

62

LECTUUB n.

equal position in society, but I am positive that they
are not more addicted to untruth,’

Sir Thomas Munro hears even stronger testimony .
He writes ^ ; ‘ If a good system of agriculture, unri-
valled manufacturing skill, a capacity to produce what-
ever can contribute to either convenience or luxury,
schools established in every village for teaching read-
ing, writing, and arithmetic^, the general practice of
hospitality and charity amongst each other, and above
all, a treatment of the female sex full of confidence, re-
spect, and delicacy, are among the signs which denote
a civilised people— then the Hindus are not inferior to
the nations of Europe, and if civilisation is to become
an article of trade between England and India, I am
convinced that England will gain by the import cargo.’

My own experience with regard to the native
character has been, of course, very limited. Those
Hindus whom 1 have had the pleasure to know per-
sonally in Europe may be looked upon as exceptional,
as the best specimens, it may be, that India could
produce. Also, my intercourse with them has natu-

^ Mill’s History, vpL i. p. 37 1.

® Sir Tliomas Munro estimated the children educated at piiUic
schools in the Madras presidency as less than one* in three. But low
as it was, it was, as he justly remarked, a higher rate than existed
till very lately in most countries of Europe, E-lphinstone, Hist, of
India, p, 205.

In Bengal there existed no less than 8o,oCo native schools,
though, doubtless, for the most part, of a poor quality. According
to a Government Eeport of 1835, there was a village school for
every 400 persons. Missionary Intelligencer, IX. 183-193.

Ludlow (British India, I. 62) writes; ‘In every Hindu village
which has retained its old form I am assured that the children
generally are able to read, write, and cipher; but where ^Ye have
swept away the village system, as in Bengal, there the village
school has also disappeared/

TBUTHrUL OHAEACTER OE THE HINEUS.

63

rally been sucli that it could bardly have brought
out the darker sides of human nature. During the
last twenty years, however, I have had some ex-
cellent opportunities of watching a number of native
scholars under circumstances where it is not difficult to
detect a man’s true character, I mean in literary work
and, more particularly, in literary controversy. I have
watched them carrying on such controversies both
among themselves and with certain European scholars,
and I feel bound to say that, with hardly one excep-
tion, they have displayed a far greater respect for
truth, and a far more manly and generous spirit than
we are accustomed to even in Europe and America.
They have shown strength, but no rudeness ; nay I
know that nothing has surprised them so much as
the coarse invective to which certain Sanskrit scholars
have condescended, rudeness of speech being, accord-
ing to their view of human nature, a safe sign not
only of bad breeding, but of want of knowledge.
When they were wrong, they have readily admitted
their mistakes ; when they were right, they have
never sneered at their European adversaries. There
has been, with few exceptions, no quibbling, no special
pleading, no untruthfulness on their part, and cer-
tainly none of that low cunning of the scholar who
writes down and publishes what he knows perfectly
well to be false, and snaps his fingers at those who-
stiU value truth and self-respect more highly than
victory or applause at any price. Here, too, we might
possibly gain by the import cargo.

Let me add that I have been repeatedly told by
English merchants that commercial honour stands
higher in India than in any other country, and that
a dishonoured bill is hardly known there.

64

LECTURE ir.

I have left to the last the -witnesses who might
otherwise have been suspected — I mean the Hindus
themselves. The -whole of their literature from one
end to the other is pervaded by expressions of love
and reverence for truth. Their very -word for truth
is full of meaning. It is sat or satya, sat being the
participle of the verb as, to be. True, therefore,
was with them simply that which is. The English
sooth is connected with sat, also the Greek ov for ea-ov,
and the Latin sens, in prmsens.

We are all very apt to consider truth to be what
is trowed by others, or believed in by large majorities.
That kind of truth is easy to accept. But whoever
has once stood alone, surrounded by noisy assertions,
and overwhelmed by the clamour of those who ought
to know better, or perhaps who did know better — call
him Galileo or Darwin, Colenso or Stanley, or any
other name — he knows what a real delight it is to
feel in his heart of hearts, this is true— this is — ^this
is sat — whatever daily, weekly, or quarterly papera,
whatever bishops, archbishops, or popes, may say to
the contrary.

Another name for truth is the Sanskrit rita,, which
originally seems to have meant straight, direct, while
anr it a is untrue, false.

Now one of the highest praises bestowed upon the
gods in the Yeda is that they are satya, true, truthful,
trustworthy^; and it is well known that both in
modern and ancient times, men alwavs ascribe to God
or to their gods those qualities which they value
most in themselves.

Other words applied to the gods as truthful beings.

TRUTHFUL CHAEAOTER OP THE HINDUS.

65

are adrogha, lit. not deceiving ^ Adrogha-y^^
means, he whose word is never broken. Thus Indra,
the Vedic Jupiter, is said to have been praised by the
fathers^ ‘as reaching the enemy, overcoming him,
standing on the summit, true of speech, most powerful
in thought.’

Droghav4^®, on the contrary, is used for deceitful
men. Thus Vasishf^a, one of the great Yedic poets,
says : ‘ If T had worshipped false gods, or if I believed
in the gods vainly — but why art thou angry with us,
0 (?^tavedas 1 May liars go to destruction !’

Satyam, as a neuter, is often used as an abstract,
and is then rightly translated by truth. But it also
means that which is, the true, the real ; and there are
several passages in the Eig-veda where, instead of
truth, I think we ought simply to translate satyam
by the true, that is, the real, to ovr®? ov. It sounds,
no doubt, very well to translate Satyena uttabhit^
bhhmi^ by ‘the earth is founded on truth;’ and I
believe every translator has taken satya in that sense
here. Ludwig translates, ‘Von der Wahrheit ist die
Erde gestiitzt.’ But such an idea, if it conveys any
tangible meaning at all, is far too abstract for those
early poets and philosophers. They meant to say
‘ the earth, such as we see it, is held up, that is, rests
on something real, though we may not see it, on some-
thing which they called the Eeal^ and to which, in

^ Eig-veda III. 33, 9; VI. 5, i,

® Eig-veda VI. 32, 2. ® Eig-veda III. 14, 6.

* Sometimes they trace even this Satya or Hita, the Eeal or
Eight, to a still higher cause and say (Eig-veda X. 190, i) :

‘The Right and Eeal was born from the Lighted Heat ; from
thence was born Night, and thence the biUowy sea. From the sea
was born Sawvatsara, the year, he who ordereth day and night, the
Lord of all that moves (winks). The Maker (dhStri) shaped Sun

F

gg LECiXXJBE II.

course of time, they gave many more names, such as

Bita, the right, Brahman,’ &c.

Of course where there is that strong reverence for
truth there must also he the sense of guilt arising
from untruth. And thus we hear one poet pray
that the waters may wash lum clean, and cany

all his sins and all untruth :

‘Carry away, ye waters h whatever evil theie

in me, wherever I may have deceived or may have
cursed, and also aU untruth (anntam^).

Or again, in the Atharva-veda IV. 1 6 : _ _

‘May all thy fatal snares, which stand spread out
seven by seven and threefold, catch the man who tehe
a lie, may they pass by Mm who tells the truth .

From the Br4hma%as, or theological treatises ot
the Brahmans, I shall quote a few passages only : _

‘ Whosoever® speaks the truth, makes the fire on liis
own altar blaze up, as if he poured butter into the
lighted fire. His own light grows larger, and from to-
morrow to to-morrow he becomes better. But who-
soever speaks untruth, he quenches the fire on his
altar, as if he poured water into the lighted nre ;
his own light grows smaller and smaller, and from to-
morrow to to-morrow he becomes more wicked. Let
man therefore speak truth only*.

And again® : ‘A man becomes impure by uttering

falsehood.’

And again®: ‘As a man who steps on the edge

and Moon in order ; he shaped the sky, the earth, the welkin, and
the highest heaven.’ ^ Kig-veda I. 23, 22. ^

» Or it may mean, ‘ Wherever I may have deceived, or sworn false.
2 ^atapatha Brabmana IL 2, 2, 19.

^ Of. Muir, Metrical Translations, p. 268.

® ^at. Br. III. I, 2, 10. ^ Taitt. Ara^^yaka X. 9.

TETITHFITL CHARACTBE OP THE HINDUS.

67

of a sword placed over a pit cries out, I shall slip,
I shall slip into the pit, so let a man guard himself
from falsehood (or sin’).

In later times we see the respect for truth carried
to such an extreme, that even a promise, unwittingly
made, is considered to be binding.

In the Ka^y^a-Upanishad, for instance, a father is
introduced offering what is called an J.?Z-sacrifice,
where everything is supposed to be given up. His
son, who is standing hy, taunts his father with not
having altogether fulfilled his vow, because he has
not sacrificed his son. Upon this, the father, though
angry and against his will, is obliged to sacrifice his
son. Again, when the son arrives in the lower world,
he is allowed by the Judge of the Dead to ask for
three favours. He then asks to be restored to Hfe,
to be taught some sacrificial mysteries, and, as the
third boon, he asks to know what becomes of man
after he is dead. Yama, the lord of the Departed,
tries in vain to be let off from answering this last
question. But he, too, is hound by his promise, and
then follows a discourse on life after death, or
immortal life, which forms one of the most beautiful
chapters in the ancient literature of India.

The whole plot of one of the great Epic poems,
the EAm^yana, rests on a rash promise given by
Dasaratha, king of AyodhyA to his second wife,
Kaikeyi, that he would grant her two boons. In
order to secure the succession to her own son, she
asks that E^ma, the eldest son hy the king’s other
wife, should be banished for fourteen years. Much
as the kmg repents his promise, Elma, his eldest
son, would on no account let his father break his
word, and he leaves his kingdom to wander in the

68

LECTUEB n.

forest witTi Lis wife SM and Ms brother LaksbmaMa,
After the father’s death, the son of the second wife
declines the throne, and comes to E4ma to persuade
Mm to accept the kingdom of his father. But all
in vain. EAma will keep his exile for fourteen years,
and never disown Ms father’s promise. Here follows
a curious dialogue between a Brihman 6^4b41i and
Prince E4ma, of which I shall give some extracts M
‘ The Brihman, who is a priest and courtier, says,
“ Well, descendant of Eaghu, do not thou, so noble
in sentiments, and austere in character, entertain,
like a common man, this useless thought. What man
is a kinsman of any other 1 What relationship has
anyone with another? A man is born alone and
dies alone. Hence he who is attached to anyone as
Ms father or his mother, is to be regarded as if he
were insane, for no one belongs to another. Thou
oughtest not to abandon thy father’s kingdom and
stay here in a sad and miserable abode, attended
with many trials. Let thyself be inaugurated king
in the wealthy Ayodhy^. Dasaratha, thy father is
nothing to thee, or thou to Mm ; the king is one,
and thou another, do therefore what is said . . . Then
offer oblations to the departed spirits (of thy fore-
fathers) on prescribed days ; but see what a waste
of food ! For what can a dead man eat 1 If what is
eaten by one here enters into the body of another
(viz., of the departed), let £lr4ddlaas be offered to
those who are travelling; they need not then get
food to eat on their journey. These books (the
Vedas), (wMch enjoin men to) sacrifice, give, con-
secrate themselves, practise austerities, and forsake

* Muir, Metrical Translations, p. 218.

TRUTHFUL CHARACTER OF THE HINDUS.

69

the world, are composed by clever men to induce
others to bestow gifts. Authoritative words do not
fall from heaven. Let me, and others like yourselves,
embrace whatever assertion is supported by reason.
Adhere to what is apparent to the senses, and reject
what is invisible. ... This world is the next world;
do thou therefore enjoy pleasure, for every virtuous
man does not gain it. Virtuous men are greatly dis-
tressed, while the unrighteous are seen to be happy.” ’

These positivist sentiments sound strange, par-
ticularly from the mouth of a Br4hman. But the
poet evidently wishes to represent a Br4hman living
at court, who has an argument ready for anything
and everything that is likely to please his king.

But what does E4ma answer? ‘The words,’ he
says, ‘which you have addressed to me, though
they recommend what seems to be right and salutary,
advise, in fact, the contrary. The sinful transgressor,
who lives according to the rules of heretical systems,
obtains no esteem from good men. It is good con-
duct that marks a man to be noble or ignoble,
heroic or a pretender to manliness, pure or impure.
Truth and mercy are immemorial characteristics of
a king’s conduct. Hence royal rule is in its essence
truth. On truth the world is based. Both sages and
gods have esteemed truth. The man who speaks truth
in this world attains the highest imperishable state.
Men shrink with fear and horror from a liar as from
a serpent. In this world the chief element in virtue
is truth ; it is called the basis of everything. Truth
is lord in the world ; virtue always rests on truth.
AH things are founded on truth ; nothing is higher
than it. Why, then, should I not be true to my
promise, and faithfully observe the truthful injunction

70

liECTURE n.

given by my father 1 Neither through covetousness,
nor delusion, nor ignorance, will I, overpowered by
darkness, break through the barrier of truth, but
remain true to my promise to my father. How shall
I, having promised to him that I would thus reside
in the forest, transgress his injunction, and do what
Bharata recommends f

The other epic poem too, the Mahibhdrata, is full
of episodes showing a profound regard for truth and
an almost slavish submission to a pledge once given.
The death of Bhlshma, one of the most important
events in the story of the Mah^bharata, is due to his
vow never to hurt a woman. He is thus killed by
Bikhandin, whom he takes to be a woman b

Were I to quote from all the law-books, and from still
later works, everywhere you would hear the same
keynote of truthfulness vibrating through them all.

We must not, however, suppress the fact that,
under certain circumstances, a lie was allowed, or,
at all events, excused by Indian lawgivers. Thus
Gautama says ® : ‘ An untruth spoken by people under
the influence of anger, excessive joy, fear, pain, or
grief, by infants, by very old men, by persons labour-
ing under a delusion, being under the influence of
drink, or by mad men, does not cause the speaker
to fall, or, as we should say, is a venial, not a
mortal sin®.’

This is a large admission, yet even in that open
admission there is a certain amount of honesty. Again
and again in the Mahibh^rata is this excuse pleaded b

' Holtzmann, Das alte indisehe Epos, p. 21, note 83.

® V. 24. “ See Note D.

TRUTHFUL CHARACTER OF THE HINDUS.

n

Nay there is in the Mahibhirata^ the well-known story
of Kausika, called SatyavMin, the Truth-speaker, who
goes to hell for having spoken the truth. He once
saw men flying into the forest before robbers (dasyu).
The robbers came up soon after them, and asked
Kausika, which way the fugitives had taken. He
told them the truth, and the men were caught by
the robbers and killed. But Kausika, we are told,
went to hell for having spoken the truth.

The Hindus may seem to have been a priest-ridden
race, and their devotion to sacrifice and ceremonial is
well known. Yet this is what the poet of the Mah 4 -
bh^rata dares to say ;

‘ Let a thousand sacrifices (of a horse) and truth
be weighed in the balance — truth will exceed the
thousand sacrifices V

These are words addressed by /SakuntaM, the
deserted wife, to King Dushyanta, when he declined
to recognise her and his son. And when he refuses
to listen to her appeal, what does she appeal to as
the highest authority 1 — The voice of conscience.

‘If you think I am alone,’ she says to the king,
‘ you do not know that wise man within your heart.
He knows of your evil deed — in his sight you com-
mit sin. A man who has committed sin may think
that no one knows it. The gods know it and the
old man within V

This must suffice. I say once more that I do not
wish to represent the people of India as 253 millions
of angels, but I do wish it to be understood and to be

^ Mahabharata VIIL 3448.

2 Muir, 1 . c. p. 268 ; Mab^bMrata I, 3095.
^ MaMbMrata L 30i5“i6.

72

LBCTUBE II.

accepted as a fact, that the damaging charge of un-
truthfulness brought against that people is utterly
unfounded with regard to ancient times. It is not
only not true, but the very opposite of the truth.
As to modern times, and I date them from about
I OCX) after Christ, I can only say that, after reading
the accounts of the terrors and horrors of Moham-
medan rule, my wonder is that so much of native
virtue and truthfulness should have survived. You
might as well expect a mouse to speak the truth
before a cat, as a Hindu before a Mohammedan judge.
If you frighten a child, that child will tell a lie — if
you terrorise millions, you must not be sm*prised if
they try to escape from your fangs. Truthfulness is
a luxury, perhaps the greatest, and let me assure you,
the most expensive luxury in our life — and happy the
man who has been able to enjoy it from his very child-
hood. It may be easy enough in our days and in a free
country, like England, never to tell a lie — but the
older we grow, the harder we find it to be always
true, to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth. The Hindus too had made that dis-
covery. They too knew how hard, nay how impos-
sible it is, always to speak the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth. There is a short story
in the ^atapatha Brdhmana, to my mind full of deep
meaning, and pervaded by the real sense of truth,
the real sense of the difficulty of truth. His kins-
man said to Arum Aupavesi, ‘ Thou art” advanced
in years, establish thou the sacrificial fires.’ He
replied: ‘Thereby you teU me henceforth to keep
silence. For he who has established the fires
must not speak an untruth, and only by not
speaking at all, one speaks no untruth. To that

TBUTHI’UL CHARACTER OF THE HINDUS.

73

extent the service of the sacrificial fires consists in
truths

I doubt whether in any other of the ancient litera-
tures of the world you will find traces of that extreme
sensitiveness of conscience which despairs of our ever
speaking the truth, and which declares silence gold,
and speech silver, though in a much higher sense
than our proverb.

What I should wish to impress on those who will
soon find themselves the rulers of millions of human
beings in India, is the duty to shake off national
prejudices, which are apt to degenerate into a kind
of madness. I have known people with a brown
skin whom I could look up to as my betters. Look
for them in India, and you will find them, and if
you meet with disappointments, as, no doubt you
will, think of the people with white skins whom you
have trusted, and whom you can trust no more. We
are all apt to be Pharisees in international judgments.
I read only a few days ago in a pamphlet written
by an enlightened politician, the following words : —

‘ Experience only can teach that nothing is so truly
astonishing to a morally depraved people as the
phenomenon of a race of men in whose word perfect
confidence may be placed^ .... The natives are
conscious of their inferiority in nothing so much as
in this. They require to be taught rectitude of
conduct much more than literature and science.’

If you approach the Hindus with such feelings,
you will teach them neither rectitude, nor science,
nor literature. Nay, they might appeal to their

^ ^atapatha Brfilimajia, translated by Eggeling, Sacred Books of
tbe East, vol. xii. p. 313, § 20.

f Sir Charles Trevelyan, Christianity and ffindnism, p. 81.

74

McmEB ir.

own literature, even to their law-books, to teach us
at least one lesson of truthfulness, truthfulness to
ourselves, or, in other words, — humilitj.

Wliat does Y4^?iavalkya say ^ 1

‘ It is not our hermitage,’ he says — our religion
we might say — ‘still less the colour of our skin,
that produces virtue; virtue must be practised.
Therefore let no one do to others what he would
not have done to himself.’

And the Laws of the M^navas, which were so
much abused by Mill, what do they teach - 1

‘ Evil doers think indeed that no one sees them ;
but the gods see them, and the old man within.’

‘ Self is the witness of Self, Self is the refuge of
Self. Do not despise thy own Self, the highest
witness of men ®.’

‘If, friend, thou thinkest thou art self-alone, re-
member there is the silent thinker (the Highest Self)
always within thy heart, and he sees what is good,
and what is evil V

‘ 0 friend, whatever good thou mayest have done
from thy very birth, all will go to the dogs, if thou
speak an untruth.’

Or in YasMa, XXX. i :

‘Practise righteousness, not unrighteousness ; speak
truth, not untruth ; look far, not near ; look up to-
wards the Highest, not towards anything low.’

No doubt, there is moral depravity in India, and
where is there no moral depravity in this world 1
But to appeal to international statistics would be,
I believe, a dangerous game. Nor must we forget
that our standards of morality differ, and, on some

‘ lY. 65.

“ YHI. 85.

Ym. 90.

‘ YIII. 9a.

TRUTHFUL CHARACTER OP THE HINDUS.

75

points, differ considerably from those recognised in
India; and we mnst not wonder, if sons do not at
once condemn as criminal what their fathers and
grandfathers considered right. Let us hold by all
means to our sense of what is right and what is
wrong; but in judging others, whether in public or
in private life, whether as historians or politicians, let
us not forget that a kindly spirit will never do any
harm. Certainly I can imagine nothing more mis-
chievous, more dangerous, more fatal to the per-
manence of English rule in India, than for the young
Civil Servants to go to that country with the idea
that it is a sink of moral depravity, an ant’s nest
of lies ; for no one is so sure to go wrong, whether
in public or in private life, as he who says in his
haste : ‘ All men are liars.’

HUMAN INTEREST OF SANSKRIT
LITERATURE.

LECTDEE III

My first Lecture was intended to remove tlie
prejudice that India is and always must be a strange
country to ns, and that those who have to live there
will find themselves stranded, and far away from that
living stream of thoughts and interests which carries
us along in England and in other countries of
Europe.

My second Lecture was directed against another
prejudice, namely, that the people of India with
whom the young Civil Servants will have to pass the
best years of their life are a race so depraved morally,
and more particularly so devoid of any regard for
truth, that they must always remain strangers to us,
and that any real fellowship or friendship with them
is quite out of the question.

To-day I shah have to grapple with a third pre-
judice, namely, that the literature of India, and more
especially the classical Sanskrit literature, whatever
may be its interest to the scholar and the antiquarian,
has little to teach us which we cannot learn better
from other sources, and that at all events it is of
little practical use to young civilians. If only they
learn to express themselves in Hindustani or Tamil,
that is considered quite enough ; nay, as they have

HUMAN INTEREST OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 77

to deal with men and with the ordinary affairs of
life, and as, before everything else, they are to be
men of the world and men of business, it is even
supposed to be dangerous, if they allowed themselves
to become absorbed in questions of abstruse scholar-
ship or in researches on ancient rehgion, mythology,
and philosophy.

I take the very opposite opinion, and I should
advise every young man who wishes to enjoy his
life in India, and to spend his years there with profit
to himself and to others, to learn Sanskrit, and to
learn it well.

I know it will be said. What can be the use of
Sanskrit at the present day 1 Is not Sanskrit a dead
language ? And are not the Hindus themselves
ashamed of their ancient literature? Do they not
learn English, and do they not prefer Locke, and
Hume, and Mill to their ancient poets and philoso-
phers ?

No doubt Sanskrit, in one sense, is a dead language.
It was, I believe, a dead language more than two thou-
sand years ago. Buddha, about 500 B.c., commanded
his disciples to preach in the dialects of the people ;
and King Asoka, in the third century B.O., when he
put up his Edicts, which were intended to be read
or, at least, to be understood by the people, had them
engraved on rocks and pillars in the vaiious local
dialects from Cabul ^ in the North to BaUabhi in the
South, from the sources of the Ganges and the Jum-
nah to Allahabad and Patna, nay even down to Orissa.
These various dialects are as Afferent from Sanskrit
as Italian is from Latin, and we have therefore good

^ See Cuimiiigham, Corpus Inscriptiouum Indicarum, Tol. i,

78

UEOTUEE ni.

reason to suppose that, in the third century B.C., if
not earlier, Sanskrit had ceased to be the spoken
language of the people at large.

There is an interesting passage in the Z'ullavagga,
where we are told that, even diuring Buddha’s life-
time, some of his pupils, who were Brahmans by
birth, complained that people spoiled the words of
Buddha by every one repeating them in his own
dialect (nirutti). They proposed to translate his
words into Sanskrit ; but he declined, and commanded
that each man should learn his doctrine in ids own
language \

And there is another passage, quoted by Hardy in
his Manual of Buddhism, p. i86, where we read that
at the time of Buddha’s first preaching each of the
countless listeners thought that the sage w’as looking
towards him, and was speaking to him in his own
tongue, though the language used was M4gadhi ^

Sanskrit, therefore, as a language spoken by the
people at large, had ceased to exist in the third cen-
tury B. c.

Yet such is the marvellous continuity between
the past and the present in India, that in spite of
repeated social convulsions, religious reforms, and
foreign invasions, Sanskrit may be said to be still
the only language that is spoken over the whole
extent of that vast country.

Though the Buddhist sovereigns published their
edicts in the vernaculars, public inscriptions and
private official documents continued to be composed

^ Xulkvagga V. 33, i. The expreesion used is ZAandaso arope-

“ See Ehys Davids, Buddhist Suttas, Sacred Books of th% East,

HUMAN INTEREST OE SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 79

in Sanskrit during the last two thousand years.
And though the language of the sacred writings
of Buddhists and G^ainas was borrowed from the
vulgar dialects, the literature of India never ceased
to be written in P^winean Sanskrit, while the few
exceptions, as, for instance, the use of Prakrit by
women and inferior characters in the plays of
K41id^sa and others, are themselves not without
an important historical significance.

Even at the present moment, after a century of
English rule and English teaching, I believe that
Sanskrit is more widely understood in India than
Latin was in Europe at the time of Dante.

Whenever I receive a letter from a learned man
in India, it is written in Sanskrit. Whenever there
is a controversy on questions of law and religion,
the pamphlets pubhshed in India are written in
Sanskrit. There are Journals written in Sanskrit
which must entirely depend for their support on
readers who prefer that classical language to the
vulgar dialects. There is The Pandit, published at
Benares, containing not only editions of ancient
texts, but treatises on modern subjects, reviews of
books published in England, and controversial ar-
ticles, all in Sanskrit.

Another paper of the same kind is the Pratna-
Kamra-nandini, ‘ the Delight of lovers of old things,’
published likewise at Benares, and full of valuable
materials.

There is also the Vidyodaya, ‘the Eise of Know-
ledge,’ a Sanskrit journal published at Calcutta,
which sometimes contains important articles. There
are probably others, which I do not know.

There is a Monthly Serial published at Bombay,

80

LECTUEB III.

by M. Moreshwar Kimte, called the SJiad-darshana-
Chintanikd, or ‘Studies in Indian PMlosophy,’ giving
the text of the ancient systems of philosophy, with
commentaries and treatises, written in Sanskrit,
though in this case accompanied by a Marathi and
an English translation.

Of the Eig-veda, the most ancient of Sanskrit
books, two editions are now coming out in monthly
numbers, the one published at Bombay, by what may
be called the liberal party, the other at Pray^ga
(Allahabad) by Daydnanda Sarasvati, the represen-
tative of Indian orthodoxy. The former gives a
paraphrase in Sanskrit, and a Marathi and an English
translation ; the latter a full explanation in Sanskrit,
followed bya vernacular commentary. These books are
published by subscription, and the list of subscribers
among the natives of India is very considerable.

There are other journals, which are chiefly written
in the spoken dialects, such as Bengali, Marathi, or
Hindi ; but they contain occasional articles in San-
skrit, as, for instance, the Haris^andral’andrikA
published at Benares, the TattvahodMni, published
at Calcutta, and several more.

It was only the other day that I saw in the Liberal,
the journal of Keshub Chunder Sen’s party, an ac-
count of a meeting between Brahmavrata Samadhyayi,
a Vedic scholar of Nuddea, and Kashinath Trimbak
Telang, a M.A. of the University of Bombay. The
one came from the east, the other from the west, yet
both could converse fluently in Sanskrit b

Still more extraordinary is the number of Sanskrit
texts, issuing from natiTe presses, for which there

‘ The Lilercd, Mardi 12, 1882.

HUMAN INTBEBST OF SANSKEIT UTEEATUEE. 81

seems to be a large demand, for if we write for copies
to be sent to England, we often find that, after a year
or two, all tbe copies bave been bought up in India
itself That would not be the case with Anglo-Saxon
„ texts in England, or with Latin texts in Italy !

But more than this, we are told that the ancient
epic poems of the Mah^bhlrata and E^m^ya^^a are still
recited in the temples for the benefit of visitors, and
that in the villages large crowds assemble around the
Kithaka, the reader of these ancient Sanskrit poems,
often interrupting his recitations with tears and
sighs, when the hero of the poem is sent into banish-
ment, while when he returns to his kingdom, the
houses of the village are adorned with lamps and
garlands. Such a recitation of the whole of the Ma-
h^bhirata is said to occupy ninety days, or sometimes
half a year f The people at large require, no doubt,
that the Brahman narrator (Kdthaka) should inter-
pret the old poem, but there must be some few
people present who understand, or imagine they
understand, the old poetry of Vy4sa and Valmlki.

There are thousands of Brahmans^ even now, when
so little inducement exists for Vedic studies, who
know the whole of the Eig-veda by heart and can
repeat it ; and what applies to the Eig-veda applies
to many other books.

But even if Sanskrit were more of a dead language
than it really is, all the living languages of India,

^ See E. G. Bhaadarkar, Coasideration of tie date of the Mah^
bharata, Journal of the R. A. S. of Bombay, 1872; Talboys
Wheeler, History of ladia, ii. 365, 572; Holtzmann, Uber das
alte iadische Epos, 1881, p. i ; Phear, The Aryan Village in India
and Ceylon, p. 19.

^ Hibbert Lectures, p. 157.

G

82

LECTUEB m.

bothi Aryan and Dravidian, draw their very life and
soul from Sanskrits On this point, and on the great
help that even a limited knowledge of Sanskrit would
render in the acquisition of the vernaculars, I, and
others better qualified than I am, have spoken so
often, though without any practical effect, that I
need not speak again. Any Candidate who knows
but the elements of Sanskrit grammar will well
understand what I mean, whether his special ver-
nacular may be Bengali, Hindustani, or even Tamil.
To a classical scholar I can only say that between
a Civil Servant who knows Sanskrit and Hindustani,
and another who knows Hindustani only, there is
about the same difference in their power of form-
ing an intelligent appreciation of India and its in-
habitants, as there is between a traveller w^ho visits
Italy with a knowledge of Latin, and a party per-
sonally conducted to Home by Messrs. Cook and Co.

Let us examine, however, the objection that San-
skrit literature is a dead or an artificial literature,
a little more carefully, in order to see whether there
is not some kind of truth in it. Some people hold
that the literary works which we possess in Sanskrit
never had any real life at aU, that they “were alto-
gether scholastic productions, and that therefore they
can teach us nothing of what we really care for, namely

^ ‘ Every person acquainted with the spoken speech of India
knows perfectly well that its elevation to the dignity and nse-
fulness of written speech has depended, and must still depend,
upon its borrowing largely from its parent, or kindred soui’ce ; that
no man who is ignorant of Arabic or Sanskrit can write Hindustani
or Bengali with elegance, or purity, or precision, and that the con-
demnation of the classical languages to oblivion would consign the
dialects to utter helplessness and irretrievable barbarism.’ H. H.
Wilson, Asiatic Journal, Jan. 1836 j vol. xix. p. 15.

HUMAN INTEREST OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 83

fche historical growth of the Hindu mind. Others
maintain that at the present moment, at all events,
and after a century of English rule, Sanskrit litera-
ture has ceased to be a motive power in India, and
that it can teach us nothing of what is passing now
through the Hindu mind and influencing it for good
or for evil.

Let us look at the facts. Sanskrit literature is a
wide and a vague term. If the Vedas, such as we
now have them, were composed about 1500 B.C., and
if it is a fact that considerable works continue to be
written in Sanskrit even now, we have before us a
stream of literary activity extending over three
thousand four hundred years. With the exception
of China there is nothing like this in the whole
world.

It is difficult to give an idea of the enormous
extent and variety of that literature. We are only
gradually becoming acquainted with the untold trea-
sures which stiU exist in manuscripts, and with
the titles of that still larger number of works which
must have existed formerly, some of them being still
quoted by writers of the last three or four centuries^.

The Indian Government has of late years ordered
a kind of bibliographical survey of India to be made,
and has sent some learned Sanskrit scholars, both
European and native, to places where collections
of Sanskrit MSS. are known to exist, in order to
examine and catalogue them. Some of these cata-
logues have been published, and we learn from them

^ It would be a most useful work for any young scholar to draw
up a list of Sanskrit books which are quoted by later writers, but
have not yet been met with in Indian libraries.

84

LECTUEE III.

that the mimber of separate works in Sanskrit, of
which MSS. are still in existence, amounts to about
lOjOOoh This is more, I believe, than the whole
classical literature of Greece and Italy put together.
Much of it, no doubt, will be called mere rubbish ;
but then you know that even in our days the
writings of a very eminent philosopher have been
called ‘ mere rubbish." What I wish you to see is
this, that there runs through the whole history of
India, through its three or four thousand years, a
high road, or, it is perhaps more accurate to say,
a high mountain-path of literature. It may be re-
mote from the turmoil of the plain, hardly visible
perhaps to the millions of human beings in their daily
struggle of life. It may have been trodden by a few
solitary wanderers only. But to the historian of the
human race, to the student of the development of
the human mind, those few solitary wanderers are
after all the true representatives of India from age to
age. Do not let us be deceived. The true history
of the world must always be the history of the few;
and as we measure the Himlilaya by the height of
Mount Everest, we must take the true measure
of India from the poets of the Veda, the sages
of the Upanishads, the founders of the Ved4nta
and S4nkhya philosophies, and the authors of the
oldest law-books, and not from the millions who are
bom and die in their villages, and who have never
for one moment been roused out of their drowsy
dream of life.

To large multitudes in India, no doubt, Sanskrit
Kterature was not merely a dead literature, it was

w

<

-■

K

^ HiWbert Lectures, p. 133.

HUMAN INTEREST OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 85

simply non-existent ; bnt the same might be said of
almost every literature, and more particularly of the
literatures of the ancient world.

Still, even beyond this, I am quite prepared to ac-
knowledge to a certain extent the truth of the state-
ment, that a great portion of Sanskrit literature has
never been living and national, in the same sense in
which the Greek and Roman literatures reflected at
times the life of a whole nation ; and it is quite true
besides, that the Sanskrit books which are best known
to the public at large, belong to what might correctly
be called the Renaissance period of Indian literature,
when those who wrote Sanskrit had themselves to
learn the language, as we learn Latin, and were
conscious that they were writing for a learned and
cultivated public only, and not for the people at
large.

This will require a fuller explanation.

We may divide the whole of Sanskrit literature,
beginning with the Rig-veda and ending with Day4-
nanda’s Introduction to his edition of the Rig-veda,
his by no means uninteresting Rig-veda-bhhmik^, into
two great periods : that preceding the great Turanian
invasion, and that following it.

The former comprises the Vedic literature and the
ancient literature of Buddhism, the latter aU the rest.

If I call the invasion which is generally called the
invasion of the fi^akas, or the Scythians, or Indo-Scy-
thians, or Turushkas, the Turanian invasion, it is
simply because I do not as yet wish to commit myself
more than I can help as to the nationality of the
tribes who took possession of India, or, at least, of
the government of India, from about the first century
B.C. to the third century a.d.

86

LECTURE III.

They are best known by the name of Ytieh-chi, this
being the name by which they are called in Chinese
chronicles. These Chinese chronicles form the prin-
cipal source from which we derive our knowledge of
these tribes, both before and after their invasion of
India. Many theories have been started as to their re-
lationship with other races. They are described as of
pink and white complexion and as shooting firom horse-
back; and as there was some similarity between their
Chinese name Yueh-chi and the GoiM or Goths, they
were identified by Eemusat^ with those German tribes,
and by others with the Getae, the neighbours of the
Goths. Tod went even a step further, and traced
the Gits in India and the Eajputs back to the Yueh-
chi and Getae^. Some light may come in time out
of all this darkness, but for the pi*esent wm must be
satisfied with the fact that, between the first century
before and the third century after our era, the
greatest political revolution took place in India owing
to the repeated inroads of Turanian, or, to use a still
less objectionable term, of Northern tribes. Their
presence in India, recorded by Chinese historians, is
fully confirmed by coins, by inscriptions, and by the
traditional history of the country, such as it is ; but
to my mind nothing attests the presence of these
foreign invaders more clearly than the break, or, I
could almost say, the blank in the Brahmanical litera-
ture of India from the first century before to the
third century after our era ®.

> Eecherches snr les langues Tai-tares, 1820, vol. i. p. 337 ;
Lassen, I. A., vol. ii. p. 359.

* Lassen, who at first rejected the identification of Giits and
Yueh-chi, was afterwards inclined to accept it.

“SeeNoteE.

HUMAN INTEREST OE SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 87

If we consider the political and social state of that
country, we can easily understand what would happen
in a case of invasion and conquest by a warlike race.
The invaders would take possession of the strongholds
or castles, and either remove the old Rajahs, or make
them their vassals and agents. Everything else
would then go on exactly as before. The rents
would be paid, the taxes collected, and the life of
the villagers, that is, of the great majority of the
people of India, would go on almost undisturbed by
the change of government. The only people who
might suffer would be, or, at all events, might be the
priestly caste, unless they should come to terms with
the new conquerors. The priestly caste, however,
was also to a great extent the literary caste, and the
absence of their old patrons, the native Rajahs, might
weU produce for a time a complete cessation of literary
activity. The rise of Buddhism and its formal
adoption by King Asoka had already considerably
shaken the power and influence of the old Brahmanic
hierarchy. The Northern conquerors, whatever their
religion may have been, were certainly not believers
in the Veda. They seem to have made a kind of com-
promise with Buddhism, and it is probably due to that
compromise, or to an amalgamation of feka legends
with Buddhist doctrines, that we owe the so-called
Mah4y4na form of Buddhism, — and more particularly
the Amit^bha worship,— which was finally settled at
the Council under Kanishka, one of the Turanian rulers
of India in the first century a.d.

If then we divide the whole of Sanskrit liter-
ature into these two periods, the one anterior to
the great Turanian invasion, the other posterior to
it, we may call the literature of the former period

88

LECTUEE III.

ancient aad natural, that of the latter modern and
artificial.

Of the former period we possess, first, what has
been called the Feda, i. e. Knowledge, in the widest
sense of the word — a considerable mass of literature,
yet evidently a wreck only, saved out of a general
deluge ; secondly, the works collected in the Buddhist
Tripkaka, now known to us chiefly in what is called
the P41i dialect, the GMha dialects, and Sanskrit, and
probably much added to in later times.

The second period of Sanskrit literature compre-
hends everything else. Both periods may be subdi-
vided again, but this does not concern us at present.

Now I am quite willing to admit that the literature
of the second period, the modern Sanskrit literature,
never was a living or national literature. It here
and there contains remnants of earlier times, adapted
to the literary, religious, and moral tastes of a later
period; and whenever we are able to disentangle
those ancient elements, they may serve to throw
Hght on the past, and, to a certain extent, supplement
what has been lost in the literature of the Vedic
times. The metrical Law-books, for instance, contain
old materials which existed during the Vedic period,
partly in prose, as Sfltras, partly in more ancient
metrejasGIth^s. The Epic poems, the Mah4bh4rata
and Imm4ya«a, have taken the place of the old
ItiMsas and Akhy4nas. The Pur4»as, even, may
contain materials though much altered, of what was
called m Vedic literature the Purdnab

But the great mats of that later Kterature is
artificial or scholastic, full of interesting compositions.

“ Hibbert Lectures, p. 154, note.

HUMAN INTEREST OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 89

and by no means devoid of originality and occasional
beauty; yet^ witb all tbat, curious only, and appealing
to the interests of the Oriental scholar far more than
the broad human sympathies of the historian and the
philosopher.

It is different with the ancient literature of India,
the literature dominated by the Vedie and the Bud-
dhistic religions. That literature opens to us a chapter
in what has been called the Education of the Human
Hace, to which we can find no parallel anywhere
else. Whoever cares for the historical growth of our
language, that is, of our thoughts ; whoever cares for
the first intelligible development of religion and
mythology ; whoever cares for the first foundation of
what in later times we call the sciences of astronomy,
metronomy, grammar, and etymology; whoever cares
for the first intimations of philosophical thought, for
the first attempts at regulating family life, village
life, and state life, as founded on religion, ceremonial,
tradition and contract (samaya) — must in future pay
the same attention to the literature of the Vedic period
as to the literatures of Greece and Home and Germany.

As to the lessons which the early literature of
Buddhism may teach us, I need not dwell on them
at present. If I may judge from the numerous
questions that are addressed to me with regard to
that religion and its striking coincidences with Chris-
tianity, Buddhism has already become a subject of
general interest, and will and ought to become so
more and more^. On that whole class of literature,
however, it is not my intention to dwell in this short
course of Lectures, which can hardly suffice even for

90

LBCTUEE III.

a general survey of Vedic literature, and for an
elucidation of the principal lessons which, I think,
we may learn frona the Hymns, the Brihmanas, the
Upanishads, and the Shtras.

It was a real misfortune that Sanskrit literature
became first known to the learned public in Europe
through specimens belonging to the second, or, what
I called, the Eenaissance period. The Bhagavadgitd,
the plays of Mlidlsa, such as S'akuntald or Urva.si,
a few episodes from the Mah^bhlrata and R4m4ya?;a,
such as those of Nala and the Ya^??adattabadha, the
fables of the Hitopadesa, and the sentences of Bhartri-
hari are, no doubt, extremely curious ; and as, at the
time when they first became known in Europe, they
were represented to be of extreme antiquity, and the
work of a people formerly supposed to be quite
incapable of high literary efforts, they naturally
attracted the attention of men such as Sir William
Jones in England, Herder and Goethe in Germany,
who were pleased to speak of them in terms of highest
admiration. It was the fashion at that time to speak
of K41id4sa, as, for instance, Alexander von Humboldt
did even in so recent a work as his Kosmos, as ‘ the
great contemporary of Yirgil and Horace, who lived
at the splendid Court of VikramMitya,’ this Yikra-
m^itya being supposed to be the founder of the
Samvat era, 56 b.c. But aU this is now changed.
Whoever the YikramMitya was who is supposed to
have defeated the Sakas, and to have founded another
era, the Samvat era, 56 B.c., he certainly did not live in
the first century B.c. Nor are the Indians looked upon
any longer as an illiterate race, and their poetry as
popular and artless. On the contrary, they are judged
now by the same standards as Persians and Arabs,

HUMAN INTEREST OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 91

ItaKans or Freneli ; and, measured by that standard,
such works as Kllid 4 sa’s plays are not superior to
many plays that have long been allowed to rest in
dust and peace on the shelves of our libraries.
Their antiquity is no longer believed in by any critical
Sanskrit scholar. K 41 id 4 sa is mentioned with Bhd-
ravi as a famous poet in an inscription^ dated a.d.
585-6 (507 Siaka era), and for the present I see no
reason to place him much earlier. As to the Laws
of Manu, which used to be assigned to a fabulous
antiquity and are so stiU. sometimes by those who
write at random or at second-hand, I doubt whether,
in their present form, they can be older than the
fourth century of our era, nay I am quite prepared
to see an even later date assigned to them. T know
this will seem heresy to many Sanskrit scholars,
but we must try to be honest to ourselves. Is
there any evidence to constrain us to assign the
M 4 nava-dharma-«l,stra, such as we now possess it,
written in continuous Slokas, to any date anterior
to 300 A.D. % And if there is not, why should we not
openly state it, challenge opposition, and feel grate-
ful if our doubts can be removed %

That Manu was a name of high legal authority
before that time, and that Manu and the M^navam are
frequently quoted in the ancient legal Shtras, is quite
true ; but tliis serves only to confirm the conviction
that the literature which succeeded the Turanian

^ Publislied by Fleet in the Indian Antiquary, 1876, pp. 68-73,
and first mentioned by Dr. Bbao Daji, Journal Asiatic Society,
Bombay Branch, yol. ix.

^ Sir 'William Jones fixed their date at 1280 b.c. ; Elphinstone
as 900 B.c. It has recently been stated that they could not reason-
ably be placed later than the fifth century b.c.

92

LECTI7BE in.

invasion is full of wrecks saved from the intervening
deluge. If what we call the Lems of Mann had really
existed as a Code of Laws, like the Code of Justinian,
during previous centuries, is it likely that it should
nowhere have been quoted and appealed to 1

Yar 4 hamihira (who died 587 A.r>.) refers to iManu
several times, but not to a M^nava-dharma-sastra ;
and the only time where he seems actually to quote
a number of verses from Manu, these verses are not
to be met with in our text h

^ A very useful indication of tlie age of tlie Dliarma-siitras, as
compared witli the metrical Dharma-^astras or Sa??zliitas, is to be
found in the presence or absence in them of any reference to written
documents. Such written documents, if tliey existed, could hardly
be passed over in silence in law-books, particiilarlv when the nature
of witnesses is discussed in support of loans, pledges, etc. Now we see
that in treating of the law of debt and debtors the Dharma-sutras
of Gautama, Baudhajana, and Apastamba never mention evidence in
writing. Vasish^/za only refers to written evidence, but in a passage
which may be interpolated t, considering that in other respects his
treatment of the law of debt is very cnide. Manuks metrical code
shows here again its usual character. It is evidently based on
ancient originals, and when it simply reproduces them, gives us the
impression of great antiquity. But it freely admits more modern in-
gredients, and does so in our case. It speaks of witnesses, fixes their
minimum number at three, and discusses very minutely their qualifi-
cations and disqualifications, without saying a word about written
documents. But in one place {VIII. i68) it speaks of the valuelessness
of written agreements obtained by force, thus recognising the practical
employment of writing for commercial transactions. Professor Jolly
it is true, suggests that this verse may be a later addition, particu-
larly as it occurs totidem mrhis in Narada (IV. 55); but the final
composition of Mann’s Samhiti, such as we possess it, can hardly
be referred to a period when writing was not yet used, at all events
for commercial purposes. Mann’s Law-book is older than Yaywa-

* XJber das Indische Schuldrecht von J. Jolly, p. 291.
f Jolly, 1 . c. p. 322. X L. c. p. 290.

HITMAN INTEREST OE SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 93

I believe it will be found that tbe century in which
VarMiamihara lived and wrote was the age of the
literary Renaissance in India. That K41id4sa and
Bhiravi were famous at that time, we know from the
evidence of inscriptions. We also know that during
that century the fame of Indian literature had reached
Persia, and that the King of Persia, Khosru Nushir-
van, sent his physician, Barz61, to India, in order to
translate the fables of the Pa»/5:atantra, or rather
their original, from Sanskrit into Pahlavi. The
famous ‘Nine Gems,’ or ‘the nine classics,’ as we
should say, have been referred, at least in part, to
the same age h and I doubt whether we shall be able
to assign a much earlier date to anything we possess
of Sanskrit literature, excepting always the Vedic and
Buddhistic writings.

Although the specimens of this modem Sanskrit
literature, when they first became known, served to
arouse a general interest, and serve even now to keep
alive a certain superficial sympathy for Indian litera-
ture, more serious students had soon disposed of
these compositions, and while gladly admitting their
claim to be called pretty and attractive, could not
think of allowing to Sanskrit literature a place among

valkya’s, in whicli writing lias become a familiar subject. Yistou
often agrees literally with Y%!iiavalkya, wMle Narada, as showing
tbe fullest development of tbe law of debt, is most bkely tbe
latest

See Bribatsambit^, ed. Kern, pref. p. 43 ; Journal of tbe
R. A. S., i 8'75, p. 106.

^ Kern, Preface to Brfbatsawbita, p. 20.

Jolly, 1 . c. p. 322. He places K^ty%ana and Bnhaspati after
Narada, possibly Vyasa and Harita also. See also Stenzler, Z, d-
D. M. G, ix. 664.

94

LECTUEB III.

the world-literatures, a place by the side of Greek
and Latin, Italian, French, English or German.

There was indeed a time when people began to
imagine that all that was worth knowing about
Indian literature was known, and that the only
ground on which Sanskrit could claim a place among
the recognised branches of learning in a Univer-
sity was its usefulness for the study of the Science
of Language.

At that very time, however, now about forty years
ago, a new start was made, which has given to
Sanskrit scholarship an entirely new character. The
chief author of that movement was Bumouf, then
Professor at the College de France in Paris, an
excellent scholar, but at the same time a man of
wide views and true historical instincts, and the last
man to waste his life on mere Nalas and Gakuntalds.
Being brought up in the old traditions of the classical
school in France (his father was the author of the
well-known Greek Grammar), then for a time a
promising young barrister, with influential friends
such as Guizot, Thiers, Mignet, Villemain, at his
side, and with a brilliant future before him, he was
not likely to spend his life on pretty Sanskrit ditties.
What he wanted when he threw himself on Sanskrit
was history, human history, world-history, and with
an unerring grasp he laid hold of Yedic literature
and Buddhist literature, as the two stepping-stones
in the slough of Indian literature. He died young,
and has left a few arches only of the building he
wished to rear. But his spirit lived on in his pupils
and his friends, and few would deny that the first
impulse, directly or indirectly, to all that has been
accomplished since by the students of Vedic and

HUMAN INTEEEST OF SANSKRIT LITEBATUEE. 95

Buddhist literature, was given by Bumouf and his
lectures at the College de France.

What then, you may ask, do we find in that
ancient Sanskrit literature and cannot find anywhere
elsel My answer is. We find there the Aryan man,
whom we know in his various characters, as Greek,
Eoman, German, Celt, and Slave, in an entirely new
character. Whereas in his migrations northward his
active and political energies are called out and
brought to their highest perfection, we find the
other side of the human character, the passive and
meditative, carried to its fullest growth in India.
In some of the hymns of the Eig-veda we can still
watch an earlier phase. We see the Aryan tribes
taking possession of the land, and under the guidance
of such warlike gods as Indra and the Maruts, de-
fending their new homes against the assaults of the
black-skinned aborigines as weE as against the in-
roads of later Aryan colonists. But that period of
war soon came to an end, and when the great mass
of the people had once settled down in their home-
steads, the military and political duties seem to have
been monopolised by what we call a caste that is

^ During times of conquest and migration, such as are repre-
sented to us in the hymns of the Eig-veda, the system of castes, as it
is described, for instance, in the Laws of Manu, would have been a
simple impossibility. It is doubtful whether such a system was
ever more than a social ideal, but even for such an ideal the
materials would have been wanting during the period when the
Aryas were first taking possession of the land of the Seven Eivers.
On the other hand, even during that early period, there must have
been a division of labour, and hence we expect to find and do find
in the gramas of the Five Nations, mmors, sometimes called
nobles, leaders, kings ; coumellors, sometimes called priests, pro-
phets, judges j and working men^ whether ploughers, or builders, or

96

LECWUEE in.

by a small aristocracy, while the great majority of
the people were satisfied with spending their days
within the narrow spheres of their villages, little con-
cerned about the outside world, and content with
the gifts that nature bestowed on them, without
much labour. We read in the Mah4bh4rata (XIII.
22) :

‘ There is fruit on the trees in every forest, which
every one who likes may pluck without trouble.
There is cool and sweet water in the pure rivers here
and there. There is a soft bed made of the twigs of
beautiful creepers. And yet wretched people suffer
pain at the door of the rich!’

At first sight we may feel inclined to call this
quiet enjoyment of fife, this mere looking on,
degeneracy rather than a growth. It seems so dif-
ferent from w’-hat we think life ought to be. Yet,
from a higher point of view it may appear that those
Southern Aiyans have chosen the good part, or at
least the part good for them, while we. Northern
Aryans, have been careful and troubled about many
things.

It is at all events a problem worth considering
whether, as there is in nature a South and a North,
there are not two hemispheres also in human nature,
both worth developing — ^the active, combative, and
political on one side, the passive, meditative, and
philosophical on the other ; and for the solution of
that problem no literature furnishes such ample ma-
terials as that of the Veda, beginning with the
Hymns and ending with the TJpanishads. We enter

road-makers. These three divisioas we can clearly perceive even in
the early hymns of the Eig-veda.

HUMAN INTEEEST OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 97

into a new world— not always an attractive one, least
of aU to ns ; but it possesses one charm, it is real, it
is of natural growth, and like everything of natural
growth, I believe it had a hidden purpose, and was
intended to teach us some kind of lesson that is
worth learning, and that certainly we could learn
nowhere else. We are not called upon either to admire
or to despise that ancient Vedie literature ; we have
simply to study and to try to understand it.

There have been silly persons who have repre-
sented the development of the Indian mind as supe-
rior to any other, nay, who would make us go back
to the Yeda or to the sacred writings of the Buddhists
in order to find there a truer religion, a purer morality,
and a more sublime philosophy than our own. I shall
not even mention the names of these writers or the
titles of their works. But I feel equally impatient
when I see other scholars criticising the ancient lite-
rature of India as if it were the work of the nine-
teenth century, as if it represented an enemy that
must be defeated, and that can claim no mercy at
our hands. That the Veda is full of childish, siUy,
even to our minds monstrous conceptions, who would
deny 1 But even these monstrosities are interest-
ing and instructive ; nay, many of them, if we can
but make allowance for different ways of thought and
language, contain germs of truth and rays of light,
all the more striking, because breaking upon us
through the veil of the darkest night.

Here lies the general, the truly human interest
which the am wwMiterature of India possesses, and
which gives it a claim on the attention, not only of
Oriental scholars or of students of ancient history,
but of every educated man and woman.

y H-

98

LECTXJE.E III.

There are problems which we may put aside for a
time, aye, which we must put aside while engaged
each in our own hard struggle for life, but ■which
will recur for all that, and which, whenever they do
recur, will stir us more deeply than we like to con-
fess to others, or even to ourselves. It is true that
with us one day only out of seven is set apart for rest
and meditation, and for the consideration of what the
Greeks called ra /teyjo-ra— ‘the greatest things.’ It is
true that that seventh day also is passed by many of
us either in mere church-going routine or in thought-
less rest. But whether on week-days or on Sundays,
whether in youth or in old age, there are moments,
rare though they be, yet for all that the most critical
moments of our life, when the old simple questions
of humanity return to us in all their intensity, and
we ask ourselves, What are we ? What is this life
on earth meant for I Are we to have no rest here,
but to be always toiling and building up our own
happiness out of the ruins of the happiness of our
neighbours I And when we have made our home on
earth as comfortable as it can be made -with steam
and gas and electricity, are we really so much hap-
pier than the Hindu in his primitive homestead %
With us, as I said just now, in these Northern
climates, where life is and always must be a struggle,
and a hard struggle too, and where accumulation of
wealth has become almost a necessity to guard against
the uncertainties of old age or the accidents inevitable
in our complicated social life, with us, I say, and in our
society, hours of rest and meditation are but few and
far between. It was the same as long as we know
the history of the Teutonic races ; it was the same
even with Eomans and Greeks. The European climate

HUMAN INTEEEST OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 99

with its long cold winters, in many places also the
difficulty of cultivating the soil, the conflict of in-
terests between small communities, has developed
the instinct of self-preservation (not to say, self-
indulgence) to such an extent that most of the vir-
tues and most of the vices of European society can
be traced back to that source. Our own character
was formed under these influences, by inheritance, by
education, by necessity. We all lead a fighting-life ;
our highest ideal of life is a fighting-life. We work
till we can work no longer, and are proud, hke old
horses, to die in harness. We point with inward
satisfaction to what we and our ancestors have
achieved by hard work, in founding a family, ora
business, a town or a state. We point to the mar-
vels of what we call civilisation — our splendid cities,
our high-roads and bridges, our ships, our railways,
our telegraphs, our electric light, our pictures, our
statues, our music, our theatres. We imagine we
have made life on earth quite perfect ; in some cases
so perfect that we are almost sorry to leave it again.
But the lesson which both Brahmans and Buddhists
are never tired of teaching is that this life is but a
journey from one village to another, and not a resting-
place. Thus we read ^ :

‘Asa man journeying to another village may enjoy
a night’s rest in the open air, but, after leaving his
resting-place, proceeds again on his journey the next
day, thus father, mother, wife, and wealth are all but
like a night’s rest to us — ^wise people do not cling to
them for ever.’

Instead of simply despising this Indian view of
life, might we not pause for a moment and consider
^ Boelitiingk, Spruche, 5101.

100

LECTUBE III.

whether their philosophy of life is entirely wrong,
and ours entirely right ; whether this earth was
really meant for work only (for with us pleasure also
has been changed into work), for constant hurry and
flurry; or whether we, sturdy Northern Aryans, might
not have been satisfied with a little less of work, and
a little less of so-called pleasure, but with a little
more of thought, and a little more of rest. For, short
as our life is, we are not mere Mayflies that are born
in the morning to die at night. We have a past to
look back to and a future to look forward to, and it
may be that some of the riddles of the future find
their solution in the wisdom of the past.

Then why should we always fix our eyes on the
present only 1 Why should we always be racing,
whether for wealth or for power or for fame 1 "Why
should we never rest and be thankful ^

I do not deny that the manly vigour, the silent
endurance, the public spirit, and the private virtues
too of the citizens of European states represent one
side, it may be a very important side, of the destiny
which man has to fulfil on earth.

But there is surely another side of our nature, and
possibly another destiny open to man in his journey
across this life, which should not be entirely ignored.
If we turn our eyes to the East, and particularly to
India, where life is, or at all events was, no very
severe struggle, where the climate w'as mild, the soil
fertile, where vegetable food in small quantities
sufficed to keep the body in health and strength,
where the simplest hut or cave in a forest was
all the shelter required, and where social life never
assumed the gigantic, aye monstrous proportions of
a London or Paris, but fulfilled itself within the

HUMAN INTEREST OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 101

narrow boundaries of village communities, — ^was it
not, I say, natural there, or, if you like, was it not
intended there, that another side of human nature
should be developed— not the active, the combative
and acquisitive, but the passive, the meditative and
reflective? Can we wonder that the Aryans who
stepped as strangers into some of the happy fields
and valleys along the Indus or the Canges should
have looked upon life as a perpetual Sunday or
Holyday, or a kind of Long Vacation, delightful
so long as it lasts, but which must come to an end
sooner or later ? Why should they have accumulated
wealth ? why should they have built palaces 1 why
should they have toiled day and night ? After
having provided from day to day for the small
necessities of the body, they thought they had the
right, it may be the duty, to look round upon this
strange exile, to look inward upon themselves, upward
to something not themselves, and to see whether
they could not understand a little of the true purport
of that mystery which we call life on earth.

Of course we should call such notions of life dreamy,
unreal, unpractical, but may not they look upon our
notions of life as short-sighted, fussy, and, in the end,
most unpractical, because involving a sacrifice of life
for the sake of life 1

No doubt these are both extreme views, and they
have hardly ever been held or realised in that extreme
form by any nation, whether in the East or in the
West. We are not always plodding — we sometimes
allow ourselves an hour of rest and peace and thought — ■
nor were the ancient people of India always dreaming
and meditating on to. fiiyia-Ta, on the great problems
of life, but, when called upon, we know that they too

102

LECTUEE III.

could fight like heroes, and that, without machineiy,
they could by patient toil raise even the meanest
handiwork into a work of art, a real joy to the maker
and to the buyer.

All then that I wish to put clearly before you
is this, that the Aryan man, who had to fulfil his
mission in India, might naturally be deficient in many
of the practical and fighting virtues, which -were de-
veloped in the Northern Aryans by the very struggle
without which they could not have survived, but
that his life on earth had not therefore been entmely
wasted. His very view of life, though we cannot
adopt it in this Northern climate, may yet act as
a lesson and a warning to us, not, for the sake of
life, to sacrifice the highest objects of life.

The greatest conqueror of antiquity stood in silent
wonderment before the Indian Gymnosophists, regret-
ting that he could not communicate with them in
their own language, and that their wisdom could not
reach him except through the contaminating channels
of sundry interpreters.

That need not be so at present. Sanskrit is no
longer a difi&cult language, and I can assure every
young Indian Civil Servant that if he will but go
to the fountain-head of Indian wisdom, he will find
there, among much that is strange and useless, some
lessons of life which are worth learning, and which
we in our haste are too apt to forget or to despise.

Let me read you a few sayings only, wliieh you
may still hear repeated in India when, after the heat
of the day, the old and the young assemble together
under the shadow of their village tree — sayings which
to them seem truth, to us, I fear, mere truism !

‘ As all have to sleep together laid low in the

HUMAN INTEREST OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 103

earth, why do foolish people wish to injure one
another ^ 1

‘A man seeking for eternal happiness (moksha)
might obtain it by a hundredth part of the suffer-
ings which a foolish man endures in the pursuit of
riches

‘ Poor men eat more excellent bread than the rich ;
for hunger gives it sweetness ®.

‘Our body is like the foam of the sea, our life like
a bird, our company with those whom we love does
not last for ever ; why then sleepest thou, my son ^ ?

‘As two logs of wood meet upon the ocean and then
separate again, thus do living creatures meet

‘Our meeting with wives, relations, and friends
occurs on our journey. Let a man therefore see
clearly where he is, whither he will go, what he is,
why tarrying here, and why grieving for anything ®.

‘Family, wife, children, our very body and our
wealth, they all pass away . They do not belong to us.
What then is ours 1 Our good and our evil deeds
‘When thou goest away from here, no one will
follow thee. Only thy good and thy evil deeds, they
will follow thee wherever thou goest

‘ Whatever act, good or bad, a man performs, of that .
by necessity he receives the recompense

‘According to the Veda“ the soul (life) is eternal,
but the body of all creatures is perishable. When
the body is destroyed, the soul departs elsewhere,
fettered by the bonds of our works.

^ Mahabli. XI. 121.

® MaliabL V. 1144.
"L.c.Xn.869.

^■L.: c.:XiL 12453. ;

® L. c. III. 13846 (239).

^ Pa»M;at. II. 127 (i 17).
< MaMbh. XII. 12050.
« L. c. XII. 872.

® L. c. XII. 12456.

“ L. c. HI. 13864.

104

LECTOBE III.

‘If I know that my own body is not mine, and yet
that the whole earth is mine, and again that it is both
mine and thine, no harm can happen then h

‘As a man puts on new garments in this world,
throwing aside those which he formeidy wore, even
so the Self of man puts on new bodies which are in
accordance with his acts

‘No weapons will hurt the Self of man, no fire will
burn it, no water moisten it, no wind wiH dry it up.

‘It is not to be hurt, not to be burnt, not to be
moistened, not to be dried up. It is imperishable,
unchanging, immoveable, without beginning.

‘It is said to be immaterial, passing all understand-
ing, and unchangeable. If you know the Self of man
to' be aU this, grieve not.

‘There is nothing higher than the attainment of
the knowledge of the Self®.

‘All living creatures are the dwelling of the Self who
lies enveloped in matter, who is immortal, and spot-
less. Those who worship the Self, the immoveable,
living in a moveable dwelling, become immortal.

‘Despising everything else, a wise man should
strive after the knowledge of the Self.’

We shall have to return to this subject again, for
this knowledge of the Self is really the Veddnia, that
is, the end, the highest goal of the Veda. The highest
wisdom of Greece was ‘to know ourselves;’ the
highest wisdom of India is ‘ to know our Self.’

If I were asked to indicate by one word the dis-
tinguishing feature of the Indian character, as I have

^ Kam. Mtis, I, 23 (Boehtlingk, 918).
^ VishMu-Biitras XX. 50-53.

® Apastamba Dharma-siitras I. 8 , 22.

HUMAN INTEREST OE SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 105

here tried to sketch it, I should say it was transcen-
dent, using that word, not in its strict technical
sense, as fixed by Kant, but in its more general
acceptation, as denoting a mind bent on transcending
the limits of empirical knowledge. There are minds
perfectly satisfied with empirical knowledge, a knoA¥-
ledge of facts, well ascertained, well classified, and
well labelled. Such knowledge may assume very
vast proportions, and, if knowledge is power, it may
impart great power, real intellectual power to the
man who can wield and utilise it. Our own age is
proud of that kind of knowledge, and to be content
with it, and never to 'attempt to look beyond it, is, I
believe, one of the happiest states of mind to be in.

But, for all that, there is a Beyond, and he who
has once caught a glance of it, is like a man who has
gazed at the sun— wherever he looks, everywhere
he sees the image of the sun. Speak to him of finite
things, and he will tell you that the Finite is impos-
sible and meaningless without the Infinite. Speak to
him of death, and he will call it birth ; speak to him
of time, and he will call it the mere shadow of eter-
nity. To us the senses seem to be the organs, the
tools, the most powerful engines of knowledge ; to
him they are, if not actually deceivers, at all events
heavy fetters, checking the flight of the spirit. To
us this earth, this life, aU that we see, and hear, and
touch is certain. Here, we feel, is our home, here lie
our duties, here our pleasures. To him this earth is
a thing that once was not, and that again will cease
to be ; this life is a short dream from which we shall
soon awake. Of nothing he professes greater ignor-
ance than of what to others seems to be most certain,
namely what we see, and hear, and touch and as to

106

LECTUEE III.

oiir home, wherever that may be, he knows that
certainly it is not here.

Do not suppose that such men are mere dreamers.
Far from it ! And if we can only bring ounselves to be
quite honest to ourselves, we shall have to confess that
at times we all have been visited by these transcen-
dental aspirations, and have been able to understand
what Wordsworth meant when he spoke of those

‘Obstinate questionings
Of sense and outward tilings,

Fallings from us, vanisliirigs ;

Blank misgivings of a creature
Moving about in worlds ^not realised.^

The transcendent temperament acquired no donbt
a more complete supremacy in the Indian character
than anywhere else : but no nation, and no individual,
is entirely without that ‘ yearning beyond ; ’ indeed we
all know it under a more familiar name — namely,
Beligion.

It is necessary, however, to distinguish between
religion and a religion, quite as much as in another
branch of philosophy we have to distinguish between
language and a language or many languages. A
man may accept a religion, he may be converted to
the Christian religion, and be may change his own
particular religion from time to time, just as he may
speak different languages. But in order to have a
religion, a man must have religion. He must once
at least in his life have looked beyond the horizon of
this world, and carried away in bis mind an impres-
sion of the Infinite, which will never leave him affain.
A being satisfied with the world of sense, unconscious
of its finite nature, undisturbed by the limited or
negative character of all perceptions of the senses.

HUMAN INTEREST OR SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 107

would be incapable of any religious concepts. Only
when the finite character of all human knowledge
has been perceived is it possible for the human mind
to conceive that which is beyond the Finite, call it
what you like, the Beyond, the Unseen, the Infinite,
the Supernatural, or the Divine. That step must
have been taken before religion of any kind becomes
possible. What kind of religion it will be, depends
on the character of the race which elaborates it, its
surroundings in nature, and its expei'ience in history.

Now we may seem to know a great many religions
— I speak here, of course, of ancient religions only, of
what are sometimes called national or autochthonous
religions — not of those founded in later times by
individual prophets or reformers.

Yet, among those ancient religions we seldom
know, what after all is the most important point,
their origin and their gradual growth. The Jewish
religion is represented to us as perfect and complete
from the very first, and it is with great difficulty
that we can discover its real beginnings and its his-
torical growth. And take the Greek and the Roman
religions, take the religions of the Teutonic, Slavonic
or Celtic tribes, and you will find that their period of
growth has always passed, long before we know
them, and that from the time we know them, all
their changes are purely metamor^hio — changes in
form of substances ready at hand.

Now let us look to the ancient inhabitants of India.
With them, first of all, religion was not only one
interest by the side of many. It was the all-absorb-
ing interest; it embraced not only worship and
prayer, but what we cal! philosophy, morality, law,
and government,- — all was pervaded by religion.

108

LECTUEE in.

Their whole life was to them a religion— everything
else was, as it were, a mere concession made to the
ephemeral requirements of this life.

What then can we learn from the ancient religious
literature of India — or from the Veda 1

It requires no very profound Imowledge of Greek
religion and Greek language to discover in the Greek
deities the original outlines of certain physical phe-
nomena. Every schoolboy knows that in Zeus there
is something of the sky, in Poseidon of the sea, in
Hades of the lower world, in Apollo of the sun, in
Artemis of the moon, in Hephiesios of the fire. But
for all that, there is, from a Greek point of view, a
very considerable difference between Zeus and the
sky, between Poseidon and the sea, between Apollo
and the sun, between Artemis and the moon.

Now what do we find in the Veda % No doubt
here and there a few philosophical hymns which have
been quoted so often that people have begun to ima-
gine that the Veda is a kind of collection of Orphic
hymns. We also find some purely mythological
hymns, in which the Devas or gods have assumed
nearly as much dramatic personality as in the Ho-
meric hymns.

But the great majority of Vedic hymns consists in
simple invocations of the fire, the water, the sky,
the sun, and the storms, often under the same names
which afterwards became the proper names of Hindu
deities, but as yet nearly free from all that can be
called irrational or mythological. There is nothing
irrational, nothing I mean we cannot enter into or
sympathise with, in people imploring the storms to
cease, or the sky to rain, or the sun to shine. I say
there is nothing irrational in it, though perhaps it

HUMAN INTEBEST OE SANSKBIT LITEEATUEE, 109

miglit be more accurate to say that there is nothing
in it that would surprise anybody who is acquainted
with the growth of human reason, or, at all events, of
childish reason. It does not matter how we call the ten-
dency of the childish mind to confound the manifesta-
tion with that which manifests itself, effect with cause,
act with agent. Call it Animism, Personification,
Metaphor, or Poetry, we all know what is meant by
it, in the most general sense of all these names ; we
all know that it exists, and the youngest child who
beats the chair against which he has fallen, or who
scolds his dog, or who sings, ‘ Eain, rain, go to Spain,’
can teach us that, however irrational all this may
seem to us, it is perfectly rational, natural, aye in-
evitable in the first periods, or the childish age of
the human mind.

Now it is exactly this period in the growth of
ancient religion, which was always presupposed, or
postulated, but was absent everywhere else, that is
clearly put before us in the hymns of the Eig-veda.
It is this ancient chapter in the history of the human
mind which has been preserved to us in Indian lite-
rature, while we look for it in vain in Greece or
Borne or elsewhere.

It has been a favourite idea of those who call
themselves ‘ students of man,’ or anthropologists, that
in order to know the earliest or so-called prehistoric
phases in the growth of man, we should study the
life of savage nations, as we may watch it still in
some parts of Asia, Africa, Polynesia and America.

There is much truth in this, and nothing can be
more useful than the observations which we find col-
lected in the works of such students as Waitz, Tylor,
Lubbock, and many others. But let us be honest.

HUMAN INTEEEST OP SANSKEIT LITERATUEB. lH

see how sense dwindled away into nonsense, custotn
into ceremony, ceremony into farce. Why then should
this surface of savage life represent to us the lowest
stratum of human life, the very beginnings of civil-
ization, simply because we cannot dig beyond that
surface 1

Now, I do not wish to be misunderstood. I do
not claim for the ancient Indian literature any more
than I should willingly concede to the fables and
traditions and songs of savage nations, such as we
can study at present in what we call a state of nature.
Both are important documents to the student of the
Science of Man. I simply say that in the Yeda we
have a nearer approach to a beginning, and an in-
telligible beginning, than in the wild invocations of
Hottentots or Bushmen. But when I speak of a be-
ginning, I do not mean an absolute beginning, a
beginning of all things. Again and again the question
has been asked whether we could bring ourselves to
believe that man, as soon as he could stand on his
legs, instead of crawling on aU fours, as he is sup-
posed to have done, burst forth into singing Vedic
hymns -1 But who has ever maintained this ? Surely
whoever has eyes to see can see in every Vedic
hymn, aye, in every Vedic word, as many rings within
rings as is in the oldest tree that was ever hewn
down in the forest.

I shall say even more, and 1 have said it before,
namely^, that supposing that the Vedic hymns were
composed between 1500 and 1000 B. a, we can hardly
understand how, at so early a date, the Indians had
developed ideas which to us sound decidedly modem.

I should give anything if I could escape from the
conclusion that the collection of the Vedic Hymns,

112

LECTURE III.

a co]lectioii in ten books, existed at least looo B.c.,
that is about 500 years before the rise of Buddhism!
I do not mean to say that something may not be
discoyered hereafter to enable us to refer that col-
lection to a later date. All I say is that, so far as
we know ai present, so far as all honest Sanskrit
scholars know at lyresent, we cannot well bring our
pre-Buddhistic literatui’e into narrower Iimits*^than
five hundred years.

WRat then IS to be done 1 We must simply keep
our pre-conceived notions of what people call primi-
tive humanity in abeyance for a time, and if we find
that people three thousand years ago were familiar
with ideas that seem novel and nineteenth-eentury-
like to us, well, we must somewhat modify our con-
ceptions of the primitive savage, and remember that
things hid from the wise and prudent have sometimes
been revealed to babes.

I maintain then that for a study of man, or, if von
like, for a study of Aryan humanity, there is nothing
m the world equal in importance with the Veda.

I maintain that to everybody who cares fiir himself,
lor his ancestors, for his history, or for his intellectuai
development, a study ofVedic literature is indis-
pnsable ; and that, as an element of liberal education
It IS far more important and far more improving than
the reigns of Babylonian and Persian kings, aye even
than the dates and deeds of many of the kings of
Judah and Israel. ^

It IS curious to observe the reluctance with which
these facts are accepted, particularly by those to
whom they ought to be mosf welcome, I mean the
students of anthropology. Instead of devoting all
eir energy to the study of these documents, which

OBJECTIONS.

129

lunation in addition to the twenty-seven stars from
new moon to new moon, create much confusion in
the minds of the rough-and-ready reckoners of those
early times. AU they were concerned with were the
twenty-seven celestial stations which, after being
once traced out by the moon, were fixed, like so
many mile-stones, for determining the course of all
the celestial travellers that could he of any interest for
signs and for seasons, and for days and for years. A
circle divided into twenty-seven sections, or any
twenty-seven poles planted in a circle at equal dis-
tances round a house, would answer the purpose of a
primitive Vedic observatory. All that was wanted
to be known was between which pair of poles the
moon, or afterwards the sun also, was visible at their
rising or setting, the observer occupying the same
central position on every day.

Our notions of astronomy cannot in fact be too
crude and too imperfect if we wish to understand the
first beginnings in the reckoning of days and seasons
and years. We cannot expect in those days more
than what any shepherd would know at present of
the sun and moon, the stars and seasons. Nor can
we expect any observations of heavenly phenomena
unless they had some bearing on the practical wants
of primitive society.

If then we can watch in India the natural, nay
inevitable, growth of the division of the heaven into
twenty-seven equal divisions, each division marked
by stars, which may have been observed and named
long before they were used for this new purpose — if,
on the other hand, we could hardly understand the
growth and development of the Indian ceremonial
except as determined by a knowledge of the lunar

LEGTUEE IV,

430

astensms, the lunar months, and the lunar seasons,
surely it would be a senseless hypothesis to ima-
gine that theVedic shepherds or priests went to
Babylonia in search of a knowledge which every
shepherd might have acquired on the banks of the
Indus, and that, after their return from that country
only, where a language was spoken which no Hindu
could understand, they set to work to compose their
sacred hymns, and arrange their simple ceremonial.
We must never forget that what is natural in one
place IS natural in other places also, and we may
sum up without fear of serious contradiction, that no
case has been made out in favour of a foreign origin
of the elementary astronomical notions of the Hindus
as found or presupposed in the Vedic hymns h
The Arabs, as is well known, have twenty-eio-ht
lunar stations, the Manzil, &xid. I can see no reason whv
Mohammed and his Bedouins in the desert should
not have made the same observation as the Vedic
poets m India, though I must admit at the same
time that Oolebrooke has brought forward very
cogent arguments to prove that, in their scientific
employment at least, the Arabic Manzil were really
borrowed from an Indian source .

,, Chinese, too, have their famous lunar stations
the bleu, ongm^Wj twenty-four in number, and after-
wards raised to twenty-eight h But here ao-ain there
^ no necessity whatever for admittin^^ with Biot
Lassen and others, that the Hindus went to China
0 gam their simplest elementary notions of lunar
chrononomy. of all. tie Chinese began with

■ L. c. PP-35-3S?.

® L. c. p. xlvii.

OBJECTIONS.

131

twenty-four, and raised them to twenty-eight ; the
Hindus began with twenty-seven, and raised them to
twenty-eight. Secondly, out of these twenty-eight
asterisms, there are seventeen only which can really be
identified with the Hindu stars {t4r4s). Now if a scien-
tific system is borrowed, it is borrowed complete. But,
in our case, I see really no possible channel through
which Chinese astronomical knowledge could have
been conducted to India so early as looo before our
era. In Chinese literature India is never mentioned
before the middle of the second century before Christ ;
and if the Ninas in the later Sanskrit literature are
meant for Chinese, 'which is doubtful, it is important
to observe that that name never occurs in Vedic
literature h

^ In the Mali^bharata and elsewhere the uS'lnas are mentioned
among the Dasyus or non- Aryan races in the North and in the
East of India. King Bhagadatta is said to hare had an army of
JTinas and Kir^tas* * * § , and the Pawcfavas are said to reach the town
of the King of the Knlindas, after having passed through the
countries of Ainas, Tukh^ras, and Daradas. All this is as vague as
ethnological indications generally are in the late epic poetry of India.
The only possibly real element is that Kirata and Aina soldiers
are called ka«/^ana, gold or yellow coloured t, and compared to a
forest of Kar^^ikaras, which were trees with yellow flowers J. In
Mahabh. VL 9, v. 373, vol. ii. p. 344, the Ainas occur in company
with Kambo^as and Yavan as, which again conveys nothing definite.

Chinese scholars tell us that the name of China is of modern
origin, and only dates from the Tbsin dynasty or from the famous
Emperor Shi-hoang-ti, 247 B.c. But the name itself, though in a
more restricted sense, occurs in earlier documents, and may, as
Lassen thinks §, have become known to the Western neighbours of

* Lassen, i.p. 1029 ; Mahibh. III. 117, v. 12350; vol. i. p. 619^

t Mahabh. V. 18, v. 584 ; voL ii, p. 106.

I See Va^’aspatya s. v. ; Ka^^it KarwikaragauraA

§ Lassen, voi. i. p. 1029, n. 2.

K 2

132

LECTUBE ly.

When therefore the impossihilitj of so early a
communication between China and India had at last
been recognised, a new theory was formed, namely
‘ that the knowledge of Chinese astronomy was not
imported straight from China to India, but was
carried, together with the Chinese system of division
of the heavens into twenty-eight mansions, into
Western Asia, at a period not much later than iioo
B.C., and was then adopted by some Western people,
either Semitic or Iranian. In their hands it was
supposed to have received a new form, such as adapted
it to a ruder and less scientific method of observation,
the limiting stars of the mansions being converted
into zodiacal groups or constellations, and in some
instances altered in position, so as to be brought
nearer to the general planetary path of the ecliptic.
In this changed form, having become a means of
roughly determining and describing the places and
movements of the planets, it was believed to have
passed into the keeping of the Hindus, very probably
along with the first knowledge of the planets them-
selves, and entered upon an independent career of
history in India. It still maintained itself in its old
seat, leaving its traces later in the Bundahash; and
made its way so far westward as finally to become
known and adopted by the Arabs.’ With due respect
for the astronomical knowledge of those who hold this
view, all I can say is that this is a novel, and nothing
but a novel, without any facts to support it, and that
the few facts which are known to us do not enable a

CWna. It is certainly strange that the Sinim too, mentioned in
Isaiah xlix. 1 2, have been taken hy the old commentators for people
of China, visiting Babylon as merchants and travellers.

OBJECTIONS.

133

careful reasoner to go beyond the conclusions stated
many years ago by Colebrooke, that the ‘ Hindus
had undoubtedly made some progress at an early
period in the astronomy cultivated by them for the
regulation of time. Their calendar, both civil and
religious, was governed chiefly, not exclusively, by
the moon and the sun : and the motions of these
luminaries were carefully observed by them, and with
such success, that their determination of the moon’s
synodical revolution, which was what they were
principally concerned with, is a much more correct
one than the Greeks ever achieved. They had a
division of the ecliptic into twenty-seven and twenty-
eight parts, suggested evidently by the moon’s period
in days, and seemingly their own; it was certainly
borrowed by the Arabians.’

There is one more argument which has been
adduced in support of a Babylonian, or, at all events,
a Semitic influence to be discovered in Vedic litera-
ture which we must shortly examine. It refers to
the story of the Deluge.

That story, as you know, has been traced in the
traditions of many races, which could not weU have
borrowed it from one another ; and it was rather a
surprise that no allusion even to a local deluge should
occur in any of the Vedic hymns, particularly as
very elaborate accounts of different kinds of deluges
are found in the later Epic poems, and in the still
later Pur4nas, and form in fact a very familiar subject
in the religious traditions of the people of India.

Three of the Avatdras or incarnations of Vishnu
are connected with a deluge, that of the Fish,
that of the Tortoise, and that of the Boar, Vishjtu
in each case rescuing mankind from destruction by

134

LECTUBB IV.

■water, by assuming the form of a fish, or a tortoise,
or a boar.

This being so, it seemed a very natural conclusion
to make that, as there was no mention of a deluge
in the most ancient literature of India, that legend
had penetrated into India from without at a later
time.

When, however, the Vedic literature became more
generally known, stories of a deluge were discovered,
if not in the hymns, at least in the prose writings,
belonging to the second period, commonly called the
Br4hmaK.a period. Not only the story of Mann and
the Fish, but the stories of the Tortoise and of the
Boar also, were met with there in a more or less
complete form, and with this discovery the idea of
a foreign importation lost much of its plausibility.
I shall read you at least one of these accounts of a
Deluge which is found in the iSatapatha Br4hma?ia,
and you can then judge for yourselves whether the
similarities between it and the account in Genesis
are really such as to require, nay as to admit, the
hypothesis that the Hindus borrowed their account
of the Deluge from their nearest Semitic neighbours.

We read in the Batapatha Brahmama I. 8, i :

‘In the morning they brought water to Manu for
washing, as they bring it even now for washing our
hands.

‘ While he was thus washing, a fish came into his
hands.

‘ 2 . The fish spoke this word to Manu : “ Keep me,
and I shall save thee.”

‘ Manu said : “ From what wilt thou save me ?”

‘ The fish said ; “A flood will carry away all these
creatures, and I shall save thee from it.”

OBJECTIONS.

135

‘ Manu said : “ How canst thou be kept ? ”

‘3. The fish said : “ So long as we are small, there
is much destruction for us, for fish swallows fish.
Keep me therefore first in ajar. When I outgrow
that, dig a hole and keep me in it. When I out-
grow that, take me to the sea, and I shall then be
bevond the reach of destruction.”

‘4. He became soon a large fish (;9'^asha), for such
a fish grows largest. The fish said; “ In such and such
a year the flood will come. Therefore when thou hast
built a ship, thou shalt meditate on me. And when
the flood has risen, thou shalt enter into the ship, and
I will save thee from the flood.”

‘ 5. Having thus kept the fish, Manu took him to
the sea. Then in the same year which the fish had
pointed out, Manu, having built the ship, meditated on
the fish. And when the flood had risen, Manu entered
into the ship. Then the fish swam towards him, and
Manu fastened the rope of the ship to the fish’s horn,
and he thus hastened towards ^ the Northern Moun-
tain.

‘ 6. The fish said : “ I have saved thee ; bind the
ship to a tree. May the water not cut thee off,
while thou art on the mountain. As the water sub-
sides, do thou gradually slide down with it.” Manu
then slid down gradually with the water, and there-
fore this is called ‘Hhe Slope of Manu” on the
Northern Mountain. Now the flood had carried away
all these creatures, and thus Manu was left there
alone.

‘7. Then Manu went about singing praises and

^ I prefer now the reading of the Kdwva-sakh^, ahhidudrava,
instead of atidudrava or adhidudriva of the other MSS. See
Weber, Ind. Streifen, i. p.-ii.

136

LBCTUIIE IV.

toiling, Wishing for offspring. And he sacrificed
there also with a Paka-sacrifice. He poured clari-
fied butter, thickened milk, whej, and curds in the
water as a libation. In one year a woman arose
from it. She came forth as if dripping, and clarified
butter gathered on her step. Mitra and Varuna
came to meet her.

‘ 8. They said to her : “Who art thou ?” She said:

The daughter of Manu.” They rejoined : “ Say
that thou art ours.” “Ho,” she said, “he who has
begotten me, his I am.”

‘Then they wished her to be their sister, and she
half agreed and half did not agree, but went away
and came to Manu, ’

‘ 9. Manu said to her : “ Who art thou ? ” She said •
“I am thy daughter.” “How, lady, art thou my
daughter?” he asked. •

^ ‘ She replied : “The libations which thou hast poured
into the water, clarified butter, thickened milk whey
and curds, by them thou hast begotten me. I am
a benediction— perform (me) this benediction at the
sacnfices.^ If thou perform (me) it at the sacrifice, thou
wilt be rich m offspring and cattle. And whatever

essing thou wilt ask by me, will always accrue to
thee. He therefore performed that benediction in
the middle of the sacrifice, for the middle of the

between the introductory

and the final ofierings.

‘_io. Then Manu went about with her, sinffino-
praises a,nd toiling, wishing for offspring. And
vuth her he begat that offspring which is called the
offspring of Manu; and whatever blessing he asked
with her, always accrued to him. She is indeed Idk
and whosoever, knowing this, goes about (sacrifices)

OBJECTIONS.

137

witli lik, begets tlie same oflFspring which Mann
begat, and whatever blessing he asks with her,
always accrues to him.’

This, no doubt, is the account of a deluge, and
Manu acts in some respects the same part which is
assigned to Noah in the Old Testament, But if
there are similarities, think of the dissimilarities,
and how they are to be explained. It is quite
clear that, if this story was borrowed from a Semitic
source, it was not borrowed from the Old Testament,
for in that case it would really seem impossible to
account for the differences between the two stories.
That it may have been borrowed from some un-
known Semitic source cannot, of course, be dis-
proved, because no tangible proof has ever been
produced that would admit of being disproved. But
if it were, it would be the only Semitic loan in
ancient Sanskrit literature— and that alone ought
to make us pause!

The story of the boar and the tortoise too, can be
traced back to the Vedic literature. For we read in
the Taittiriya Samhit^^:

‘ At first this was water, fluid. Pray4pati, the lord
of creatures, having become wind, moved on it. He
saw this earth, and becoming a boar, he took it up.
Becoming Visvakarman, the maker of all things, he
cleaned it. It spread and became the wide-spread
Earth, and this is why the Barth is called Pn'thivi,
the wide-spread

And we find in the fifatapatha Br4hmam® the fol-
lowing slight allusion at least to the tortoise myth ;

’ VII. I, 5, I seq.; Muir, i. p. 52 ; Golebrooke, Essays, i. 75.

^ See Note H.

I YII. 5, 1, 5; Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, i. p. 54.

138

LECTUEE IV.

‘ Pra^4pati, assuming the form of a tortoise (Khrma),
brought forth all creatures. In so far -as he brought
them forth, he made them (akarot), and because he
made them he was (called) tortoise (Kurma). A tor-
toise is (called) K^syapa, and therefore all creatures
are called K4syapa, tortoise-like. He who was this
tortoise (Khrma) was really Aditya, (the sun).’

One other allusion to something like a deluge h
important chiefly on account of the name of Manu
occurring in it, has been pointed out in the K^^^aka
(XL 2 ), where this short sentence occurs : ‘The waters
cleaned this, Manu alone remained.’

All this shows that ideas of a deluge, that is, of a
submersion of the earth by water and of its rescue
through divine aid, were not altogether unknown in
the early traditions of India, while in later times they
were embodied in several of the Av&taras of Yish)iu.

When we examine the numerous accounts of a
deluge among different nations in almost every part
of the world, we can easily perceive that they do
not refer to one single historical event, but to a
natural phenomenon repeated every year, namely the
deluge or flood of the rainy season or the winter^.

This is nowhere clearer than in Babylon. Sir
Henry Eawhnson was the first to point out that
the twelve cantos of the poem of Izdubar or Nimrod
refer to the twelve months of the year and the
twelve representative signs of the Zodiac. Dr.
Haupt afterwards pointed out that llalAni, the wise
hull-man in the second canto, corresponds to the
second month, Ijjar, April-May, represented in the
Zodiac by the bull ; that the union betw'een ifilab^ni

^ Weber, Indiselie Streifen, L p. ii.

® See Lecture V, p. 152.

OBJECTIONS.

139

and Nimrod in the third canto corresponds to the
third month, Sivan, May-June, represented in the
Zodiac by the twins ; that the sickness of Nimrod
in the seventh canto corresponds to the seventh
month, Tishri, September-October, when the sun
begins to wane; and that the flood in the eleventh
canto corresponds to the eleventh month, Shahaiu,
dedicated to the storm-god Eimm6n, represented in
the Zodiac by the waterman h

If that is so, we have surely a right to claim the
same natural origin for the story of the Deluge in
India which we are hound to admit in other countries.
And even if it could be proved that in the form in
which these legends have reached us in India they
show traces of foreign influences^, the fact would
still remain that such influences have been per^
ceived in comparatively modern treatises only, and
not in the ancient hymns of the Rig-veda.

Other conjectures have been made with even less
foundation than that which would place the ancient
poets of India under the influence of Babylon. China
has been appealed to, nay even Persia, Parthia, and
Bactria, countries beyond the reach of India at that
early time of which we are here speaking, and pro-
bably not even then consolidated into independent
nations or kingdoms. I only wonder that traces of
the lost Jewish tribes have not been discovered in
the Yedas, considering that Afghanistan has so often
been pointed out as one of their favourite retreats.

After having thus carefully examined all the traces
of supposed foreign influences that have been brought

^ See Haupt, Der Keilinsehriftlicte Sintfluthbericht, i88i, p. lo.
® See M. M., Genesis and Avesta (German- translation), i. p. 148.

140

LECTURE IV.

forward by various scholars, I think I may say that
there really is no trace whatever of any foreign influ-
ence in the language, the religion, or the ceremonial
of the ancient Yedic literature of India. As it stands
before us now, so it has grown up, protected by the
mountain ramparts in the North, the Indus and the
Desert in the West, the Indus or what was called
the sea in the South, and the Ganges in the East.
It presents us with a home-grown poetry, and a
home-grown religion ; and history has preserved to
us at least this one relic, in order to teach us what
the human mind can achieve if left to itself, sur-
rounded by a scenery and by conditions of life that
might have made man’s life on earth a paradise, if
man did not possess the strange art of turning even
a paradise into a place of misery.

THE LESSOUS OF THE VEDA.

LECTUEE V.

Although there is hardly any department of
learning which has not received new light and new
life from the ancient literature of India, yet nowhere
is the light that comes to us from India so important,
so novel, and so rich as in. the study of religion and
mythology. It is to this subject therefore that I
mean to devote the remaining lectures of this course.
I do so, partly because I feel myself most at home in
that ancient world of Yedic literature in which the
germs of Aryan religion have to be studied, partly
because I believe that for a proper understanding of
the deepest convictions, or, if you like, the strongest
prejudices of the modern Hindus, nothing is so useful
as a knowledge of the Veda. It is perfectly true that
nothing would give a falser impression of the actual
Brahmanical religion than the ancient Vedic litera-
ture, supposing we were to imagine that three
thousand years could have passed over India without
producing any change. Such a mistake would be
nearly as absurd as to deny any difference between
the Yedic Sanskrit and the spoken Bengali. But
no one will gain a scholarlike knowledge or a true
insight into the secret springs of Bengali who is ig-
norant of the grammar of Sanskrit ; and no one will
ever understand the present religious, philosophical,

142

LECTURE V.

legal, and social opinions of the Hindus who is unable
to trace them back to their true sources in the Veda.

I still remember how, many years ago, when I
began to publish for the first time the text and the
commentary of the Eig-veda, it was argued by a
certain, perhaps not quite disinterested party, that
the Veda was perfectly useless, that no man in India,
however learned, could read it, and that it was of no
use either for missionaries or for any one else who
wished to study and to influence the native mind.
It was said that we ought to study the later San-
skrit, the Laws of Manu, the epic poems, and, more
particularly, the Pui’4?ias. The Veda might do very
well for German students, but not for Englishmen.

There was no excuse for such ignorant assertions
even thirty years- ago, for in these very books, in the
Laws of Manu, in the Mah4bh4rata, and in the
Pur4was, the Veda is everywhere proclaimed as the
highest authority in all matters of religion b ‘ A Brah-
man,’ says Manu, ' unlearned in holy writ, is ex-
tinguished in an instant like dry grass on fire.’
‘A twice-born man (that is a Br^hmarea, a Kshatriya,
and a Vaisya) not having studied the Veda, soon
falls, even when living, to the condition of a Mdra,
and his descendants after him.’

How far this license of ignorant assertion may be
carried is shown* by the same authorities who denied
the importance of the Veda for a historical study of
Indian thought, boldly charging those wily priests,
the Brahmans, with having withheld their sacred
literature from any but their own caste. Now so far
from withholding it, the Brahmans have always been

^ Wilson, Lectures, p. 9.

THE LESSONS OF THE VEDA.

143

striving, and often striving in vain, to make the
study of their sacred literature obligatory on all
castes, except the 5hdras, and the passages just
quoted from Manu show what penalties were threat-
ened, if children of the second and third castes, the
Kshatriyas and Taisyas, were not instructed in the
sacred literature' of the Brahmans.

At present the Brahmans themselves have spoken,
and the reception they have accorded to my edition
of the Eig-veda^ and its native commentary, the zeal
with which they have themselves taken up the study
of Tedic literature, and the earnestness with which
different sects are still discussing the proper use that
should be made of their ancient religious writings,
show abundantly that a Sanskrit scholar ignorant of,
or, I should rather say, determined to ignore the
Veda, would be not much better than a Hebrew
scholar ignorant of the Old Testament.

I shaE now proceed to give you some characteristic
specimens of the religion and poetry of the Eig-
veda. They can only be few, and as there is
nothing like system or unity of plan in that collec-

^ As it has been doubted, and even denied, that the publication
of the Eig-veda and its native commentary has had some important
bearing on the resuscitation of the religious life of India, I feel bound
to give at least one from the many testimonials which I have
received from India. It comes from the Adi Brahma Samaj,
founded hy Earn Mohun Eoy, and now represented by its three
branches, the Adi Brahma Samaj, the Brahma Samaj of India, and
the Sadharano Brahma Samaj. ‘ The Committee of the Adi Brahma
Samaj beg to offer you their hearty congratulations on the com-
pletion of the gigantic task which 4ias occupied you for the last
quarter of a century. By publishing the Eig-veda at a time when
Vedic learning has by some sad fatality become almost extinct in
the land of its birth, you have ‘ conferred a boon upon us Hindus,
for which we cannot but be eternally- grateful/

144

LECTUR'E V.

tion of 1017 hymns, whicli we call the Samhit 4 of
the Eig-veda, I cannot promise that they will give
you. a complete panoramic view of that intellectual
world in which our Vedic ancestors passed their life
on earth.

I could not even answer the question, if you were
to ask it, whether the religion of the Veda 'wa.s poly-
theistic, or monotheistic. Monotheistic, in the usual
sense of that word, it is decidedly not, though there
are hymns that assert the unity of the Divine as fear-
lessly as any passage of the Old Testament, or the
New Testament, or the Koran. Thus one poet says
{Eig-veda I. 1 64, 46) : ‘ That which is one, sages name it
in various ways — they call it Agni, Yama, Mittarisvan.’

Another poet says : ‘ The wise poets represent by
their words Him who is one with beautiful wings,
in many ways’.’

And again we hear of a being called Hira%ya-
garbhaj the golden germ (whatever the original of
that name may have been), of whom the poet says®:
‘ In the beginning there arose Hirawyagarbha ; he
was the one born lord of all this. He established
the earth and this sky. Who is the god to whom
we shall offer our sacrifice'?’ That Hira%yagarbha,
the poet says, ‘is alone God above all gods’ (ya^
deveshu adhi deva^ ekaA ^sit) — an assertion of the
unity of the Divine which could hardly be exceeded
in strength by any passage from the Old Testament.

But by the side of such passages, which are few
in number, there are thousands in which ever so
many divine beings are praised and prayed to. Even
their number is sometimes given as ‘thrice eleven®’

THE LESSONS OF THE VEDA.

169

the gradual advance from the material to the spi-
ritual, from the sensuous to the supersensuous, from
the human to the superhuman and the divine.
Heaven and Earth were seen, and, according to our
notions, they might simply be classed as visible and
finite beings. But the ancient poets were more honest
to themselves. They could see Heaven and Earth, but
they never saw them in their entirety. They felt
that there was something beyond the purely finite
aspect of these beings, and therefore they thought of
them, not as they would think of a stone, or a tree,
or a dog, but as something not-finite, not altogether
visible or knowable, yet as something important to
themselves, powerful, strong to bless, but also strong
to hurt. Whatever was between Heaven and Earth
seemed to be theirs, their property, their realm, their
dominion. They held and embraced all ; they seemed
to have produced all. The Devas or bright beings,
the sun, the dawn, the fire, the wind, the rain, were
all theirs, and were called therefore the offspring of
Heaven and Earth. Thus Heaven and Earth became
the Universal Father and Mother.

Then we ask at once, ‘Were then these Heaven
and Earth godsl But gods in what sense? In our
sense of God ? Why, in our sense, God is altogether
incapable of a plural. Then in the Greek sense of
the word ? No, certainly not, for what the Greeks
called gods was the result of an intellectual growth
totally independent of the Veda or of India. We
must never forget that what we call gods in ancient
mythologies are not substantial, living, individual
beings, of whom we can predicate this or that.
Deva, which we translate by god, is nothing but an
adjective, expressive of a quality shared by heaven

160

LBCTUBB V.

and earth, by the sun and the stars and the dawn
and the sea, namely hrightness ; and the idea of god,
at that early time, contains neither more nor less
than what is shared in common by all these bright
beings. That is to say, the idea of god is not an
idea ready-made, which could be applied in its abstract
purity to heaven and earth and other such like
beings ; but it is an idea, growing out of the con-
cepts of heaven and earth and of the other bright
beings, slowly separating itself from them, but never
containing more than what was contained, though
confusedly, in the objects to which it was successively
applied.

Nor must it be supposed that heaven and earth,
having once been raised to the rank of undecaying
or immortal beings, of divine parents, of guardians
of the laws, were thus permanently settled in the
religious consciousness of the people. Far from it.
When the ideas of other gods, and of more active
and more distinctly personal gods had been elabo-
rated, the Yedic Bishls asked without hesitation,
Who then has made heaven and earth ? not exactly
Heaven and Earth, as conceived before, but heaven
and earth as seen every day, as a part of what began
to be called Nature or the Urdverse.

Thus one poet saysd :

‘He was indeed among the gods the cleverest
workman who produced the two brilliant ones (heaven
and earth), that gladden all things ; he who measured
out the two bright ones (heaven and earth) by his
wisdom, and established them on everlasting sup-
ports.’

HUMAN INTEREST OF SANSKRIT HLTBRATURE. 113

have come upon us like a miracle, they seem only
bent on inventing excuses why they need not be
studied. Let it not be supposed that, because there
are several translations of the Big-veda in English,
French and German, therefore all that the Veda can
teach us has been learned. Far from it. Every one
of these translations has been put forward as tentative
only. I myself, though during the last thirty years
I have given translations of a number of the more
important hymns, have only ventured to publish a
specimen of what I think a translation of the Veda
ought to be ; and that translation, that traduction
raisonnee as I ventured to call it, of twelve hymns
only, fills a whole volume. We are still on the mere
surface of Vedic literature, and yet our critics are
ready with ever so many arguments why the Veda
can teach us nothing as to a primitive state of man.
If they mean by primitive that which came absolutely
first, then they ask for something which they will
never get, not even if they discovered the private
correspondence of Adam and Eve, or of the first
Homo and Femina sapiens. We mean by primitive
the earliest state of man of which, from the nature
of the case, we can hope to gain any knowledge;
and here, next to the archives hidden away in the
secret drawers of language, in the treasury of words
common to all the Aryan tribes, and in the radical
elements of which each word is compounded, there
is no literary relic more full of lessons to the true
anthropologist, to the true student of m ankin d, than
the Big-veda.

OBJECTIONS.

LECTUEE IV.

It may be qtiite true that controversy often does
more harm than good, that it encourages the worst
of all talents, that of plausibility, not to say dis-
honesty, and generally leaves the world at large
worse confounded than it was before. It has been
said that no clever lawyer would shrink from taking
a brief to prove that the earth forms the centre of
the world, and, with all respect for English Juries,
it is not impossible that even in our days he might
gain a verdict against Galileo. Nor do I deny that
there is a power and vitality in truth which in the
end overcomes and survives all opposition, as shown
by the very doctrine of Galileo which at present is
held by hundreds and thousands who would find it
extremely difficult to advance one single argument
in its support. I am ready to admit also that those
who have done the best work, and have contributed
most largely toward the advancement of knowledge
and the progress of truth, have seldom wasted their
time in controversy, but have marched on straight,
little concerned either about applause on the right
or abuse on the left. All this is true, perfectly true,
and yet I feel that I cannot escape from devoting
the whole of a lecture to the answering of certain
objections which have been raised against the views
which I have put forward with regard to the cha-

OBJECTIONS.

115

racier and the historical importance of Vedic litera-
ture. We must not forget that the whole subject
is new, the number of competent judges small, and
mistakes not only possible, but almost inevitable.
Besides, there are mistakes and mistakes, and the
errors of able men are often instructive, nay one
might say sometimes almost indispensable for the
discovery of truth. There are criticisms which may
be safely ignored, criticisms for the sake of criticism,
if not inspired by meaner motives. But there are
doubts and difficulties which suggest themselves
naturally, objections which have a right to be heard,
and the very removal of which forms the best ap-
proach to the stronghold of truth. Nowhere has
this principle been so fully recognised and been acted
on as in Indian literature. Whatever subject is started,
the rule is that the argument should begin with the
phrvapaksha, with all that can be said against a certain
opinion. Every possible objection is welcome, if only
it is not altogether frivolous and absurd, and then
only follows the uttarapaksha, with all that can be
said against these objections and in support of the
original opinion. Only when this process has been
fully gone through is it allowed to represent an
opinion as siddh^nla, or established.

Therefore, before opening the pages of the Veda,
and giving you a description of the poetry, the reli-
gion, and philosophy of the ancient inhabitants of
India, I thought it right and necessary to establish,
first of aU, certain points without which it would be
impossible to form a right appreciation of the histo-
rical value of the Vedic hymns, and of their import-
ance even to us who live at so great a distance from
those early poets.

lie

LEcmmB IV.

T\ie first point was purely preliminary, namely that
the Hindus in ancient, and in modem times also, are
a nation deserving of our interest and sympathy,
worthy also of our confidence, and by no means
guilty of the charge so recklessly brought against
them — the charge of an habitual disregard of truth.

Secondly, that the ancient literature of India is
not to be considered simply as a curiosity and to
be banded over to the good pleasure of Oriental
scholars, but that, both by its language, the Sanskrit,
and by its most ancient literary documents, the Vedas,
it can teach us lessons which nothing else can teach,
as to the origin of our own language, the first forma-
tion of our own concepts, and the true natural germs
of all that is comprehended under the name of civi-
lisation, at least the civilisation of the Aryan race,
that race to which we and all the greatest nations
of the world — the Hindus, the Persians, the Greeks
and Eomans, the Slaves, the Celts, and last, not least,
the Teutons, belong. A man may be a good and
useful ploughman without being a geologist, with-
out knowing the stratum on which he takes his
stand, or the strata beneath that give support
to the soil on which he lives and works, and
from which he draws his nourishment. And a man
may be a good and useful citizen, without being an
historian, without knowing how the world in which
he lives came about, and how many phases mankind
had to pass through in language, religion, and philo-
sophy, before it could supply him with that intellec-
tual soil on which he lives and works, and from which
he draws his best nourishment.

But there must always be an aristocracy of those
who know, and who can trace back the best which

OBJECTIONS.

117

we possess, not merely to a Norman Count, or a
Scandinavian Viking, or a Saxon Earl, but to far
older ancestors and benefactors, who thousands of
years ago were toiling for us in the sweat of their
face, and without whom we should never be what
we are, — the ancestors of the whole Aryan race,
the first framers of our words, the first poets of our
thoughts, the first givers of our laws, the first pro-
phets of our gods, and of Him who is God above
all gods.

That aristocracy of those who know , — di color oTie
sanno , — or try to know, is open to all who are willing
to enter, to all who have a feeling for the past,
an interest in the genealogy of our thoughts, and
a reverence for the ancestry of our intellect, who
are in fact historians in the true sense of the word,
i.e. inquirers into that which is past, but not lost.

Thirdly, having explained to you why the ancient
literature of India, the really ancient literature of
that country, I mean that of the Vedic period, de-
serves the careful attention, not of Oriental scholars
only, but of every educated man and woman who
wishes to know how we, even we here in England
and in this nineteenth century of ours, came to be
what we are, I tried to explain to you the difference,
and the natural and inevitable difference, between the
development of the human character in such different
climates as those of India and Europe. And while
admitting that the Hindus were deficient in many
of those manly virtues and practical achievements
which we value most, I wished to point out that
there was another sphere of intellectual activity in
which the Hindus excelled — the meditative and
transcendent— and that here we might learn from

118

LEGnrBE IV.

ttem some lessons of life which we ourselves are but
too apt to ignore or to despise.

Fourthly, feaxmg that I might have raised too high
expectations of the ancient wisdom, the religion and
philosophy of the Vedic Indians, I felt it my duty to
state that, though primitive in one sense, we must
not expect the Vedic religion to he primitive in the
anthropological sense of the word, as containing the
utterances of beings who had just broken their shells,
and were wonderingly looking out for the first time
upon this strange world. The Veda may be called
primitive, because there is no other literary document
more primitive than it : but the language, the mytho-
logy, the religion and philosophy that meet us in
the Veda open vistas of the past which no one would
venture to measure in years. Nay, they contain, by
the side of simple, natural, childish thoughts, many
ideas which to us sound modem, or secondary and
tertiary, as I called them, but which nevertheless are
older than any other literary document, and give
us trustworthy information of a period in the history
of human thought of which we knew absolutely
nothing before the discovery of the Vedas h

But even thus our path is not yet clear. Other
objections have been raised against the Veda as an
historical document. Some of them are important;
and I have at times shared them myself. Others are
at least instructive, and will give us an opportunity
of testing the foundation on which we stand.

^ If we applied the name of literature to the cylinders of Babylon
and the papyri of Egypt, we should have to admit that some of these
documents are more ancient than any date we dare as yet assign to
the hymns collected in the ten books of the Rig-veda.

OBJECTIONS.

119

The first objection then against our treating the
Yeda as an historical document is that it is not truly
national in its character, and does not represent the
thoughts of the whole of the population of India,
but only of a small minority, namely of the Brali-
mans, and not even of the whole class of Brahmans,
but only of a small minority of them, namely of the
professional priests.

Objections should not be based on demands which,
from the nature of the case, are unreasonable. Have
those who maintain that the Vedic hymns do not
represent the whole of India, that is the whole of its
ancient population, in the same manner as they say
that the Bible represents the Jews or Homer the
Greeks, considered what they are asking fort So
far fi:om denying that the Vedic hymns represent
only a small and, it may be, a priestly minority of
the ancient population of India, the true historian
would probably feel inclined to urge the same cautions
against the Old Testament and the Homeric poems
also.

No doubt, after the books which compose the Old
Testament had been collected as a Sacred Canon,
they were known to the majority of the Jews. But
when we speak of the primitive state of the Jews,
of their moral, intellectual, and religious status whOe
in Mesopotamia or Canaan or Egypt, we should find
that the different books of the Old Testament teach
us as little of the whole Jewish race, with aU its
local characteristics and social distinctions, as the
Homeric poems do of all the Greek tribes, or the
Vedic hymns of all the inhabitants of India. Surely,
even when we speak of the history of the Greeks or
the Homans, we know that we shall not find there

120

LECTUEE IV.

a complete picture of the socialj intellectual, and
religious life of a whole nation. We know very little
of the intellectual life of a whole nation, even during
the Middle Ages, aye even at the present day. We
may know something of the generals, of the com-
manders-in-chief, but of the privates, of the millions,
we know next to nothing. And what we do know
of kings or generals or ministers is mostly no more
than what was thought of them by a few Greek poets
or Jewish prophets, men who were one in a milhon
among their contemporaries.

But it might be said that though the writers were
few, the readers were many. Is that so ? I believe
you would be surprised to hear how small the number
of readers is even in modern times, while in ancient
times reading was restricted to the very smallest
class of privileged persons. There may have been
listeners at public and private festivals, at sacrifices,
and later on in theatres, but readers, in our sense of
the word, are a very modern invention.

There never has been so much reading, reading
spread over so large an area, as in our times. But if
you asked publishers as to the number of copies sold
of books which are supposed to have been read by
everybody, say Macaulay’s History of England, the
Life of the Prince Consort, or Darwin’s Origin of
Species, you would find that out of a population of
thirty-two millions not one million has possessed
itself of a copy of these works. The book which of
late has probably had the largest sale is the Eevised
Version of the New Testament ; and yet the whole
number of copies sold among the eighty millions of
Enghsh-speaking people is probably not more than
four millions. Of ordinary books which are called

OBJECTIONS.

121

books of the season, and which are supposed to have
had a great success, an edition of three or four
thousand copies is not considered unsatisfactory by
publishers or authors in England. But if you look to
other countries, such, for instance, as Eussia, it would
be very difficult indeed to name books that could be
considered as representative of the whole nation, or
as even known by more than a very small minority.

And if we turn our thoughts back to the ancient
nations of Greece and Italy, or of Persia and Baby-
lonia, what book is there, with the exception perhaps
of the Homeric poems, of which we could say that
it had been read or even heard of by more than a
few thousand people 1 We think of Greeks and
Eomans as literary people, and so no doubt they were,
but in a very different sense from what we mean by
this. What we call Greeks and Eomans are chiefly
the citizens of Athens and Home, and here again
those who could produce or who could read such
works as the Dialogues of Plato or the Epistles of
Horace constituted a very small intellectual aristo-
cracy indeed. What we call history — the memory of
the , past — has always been the work of minorities.
Millions and millions pass away unheeded, and the
few only to whom has been given the gift of fusing
speech and thought into forms of beauty remain as
witnesses of the past.

If then we speak of times so distant as those repre-
sented by the Eig-veda, and of a country so disin-
tegrated, or rather as yet so little integrated as
India was three thousand years ago, surely it
requires but little reflection to know that what we
see in the Vedic poems are but a few snow-clad
peaks, representing to us, from a far distance, the

122

LECTUEE IV.

■whole mountain-range of a nation, completely lost
beyond the horizon of history. When we speak of the
Vedic hymns as representing the religion, the thoughts
and customs of India three thousand years ago, we
cannot mean by India more than some unkno'wn
quantity of which the poets of the Veda are the only
spokesmen left. When we now speak of India, we
think of 250 millions, a sixth part of the whole human
race, peopling the vast peninsula from the Himalayan
mountains between the arms of the Indus and the
Ganges, down to Cape Comarin and Ceylon, an ex-
tent of country nearly as large as Europe. In the
Veda the stage on which the life of the ancient kings
and poets is acted, is the valley of the Indus and the
Punjab, as it is now called, the Sapta Sindhasa^, the
Seven Eivers of the Vedic poets. The land watered
by the Ganges is hardly known, and the whole of
the Dekkan seems not yet to bave been discovered.

Then again, when these Vedic hymns are called the
lucubrations of a few priests, not the outpourings of
the genius of a whole nation, what does that mean ?
We may no doubt call these ancient Vedic poets
priests, if we like, and no one would deny that their
poetry is pervaded not only by religious, mytho-
logical, and philosophical, but likewise by sacri-
ficial and ceremonial conceits. Still a priest, if we
trace him back far enough, is only a presbyteros or an
elder, and, as such, those Vedic poets had a perfect
right to speak in the name of a whole class, or of the
village community to which they belonged. Call
VasishiAa a priest by all means, only do not let us
imagine that he was therefore very like Cardinal
Manning.

After we have made every possible concession to

OBJECTIONS.

123

arguments, most of which, are purely hypothetical,
there remains this great fact that here, in the Eig-
veda, we have poems, composed in perfect language,
in elaborate metre, telling us about gods and men,
about sacrifices and battles^ about the varying aspects
of nature and the changing conditions of society,
about duty and j)leasure, philosophy and morality —
articulate voices reaching us from a distance from
which we never heard before the faintest whisper;
and instead of thrilling with delight at this almost
miraculous discovery, some critics stand aloof and
can do nothing but find fault, because these songs
do not represent to us primitive men exactly as they
think they ought to have been ; not like Papdas or
Bushmen, with arboraceous habits and half-animal
clicks, not as worshipping stocks or stones, or be-
lieving in fetishes, as according to Comtes inner
consciousness they ought to have done, but rather,
I must confess, as beings whom we can understand,
with whom to a certain extent we can sympathise,
and to whom, in the historical progress of the human
intellect, we may assign a place, not very far behind
the ancient Jews and Greeks.

Once more then, if we mean by primitive, people
wdio inhabited this earth as soon as the vanishing of
the glacial period made this earth inhabitable, the
Vedic poets were certainly not primitive. If we
mean by primitive, people who were without a know-
ledge of fire, who used unpolished flints, and ate raw
flesh, the Vedic poets were not primitive. If we
mean by primitive, people who did not cultivate the
soil, had no fixed abodes, no kings, no sacrifices, no
laws, agaia, I say, the Vedic poets were not primi-
tive. But if we mean by primitive the people who

124

LECTTJEB IV,

have been the first of the Aryan race to leave behind
literary relics of their existence on earth, then I say
the Vedic poets are primitive, the Vedic language
is primitive, the Vedic religion is primitive, and,
taken as a whole, more primitive than anything
else that we are ever likely to recover in the whole
history of our race.

When all these objections had failed, a last trump
was played. The ancient Vedic poetry was said to be,
if not of foreign origin, at least very much infected
by foreign, and more particularly by Semitic influ-
ences. It had always been urged by Sanskrit
scholars as one of the chief attractions of Vedic lite-
rature that it not only allowed us an insight into a
very early phase of religious thought, but that the
Vedic religion was the only one the development of
which took place without any extraneous influences,
and could be watched through a longer series of cen-
turies than any other religion. Now with regard to
the first point, we know how perplexing it is in the
religion of ancient Kome to distinguish between
Italian and Greek ingredients, to say nothing of
Etruscan and Phoenician influences. We know the
difficulty of finding out in the religion of the Greeks
what is purely home-grown, and what is taken over
from Egypt, Phoenicia, it may be, from Scythia ; or
at all events, slightly coloured by those foreign rays of
thought. Even in the religion of the Hebrews, Baby-
lonian, Phoenician, and at a later time Persian influ-
ences have been discovered, and the more we advance
towards modern times, the more extensive becomes
the mixture of thought, and the more difficult the
task of assigning to each nation the share which it
contributed to the common intellectual currency of

OBJECTIONS.

125

the world. In India alone, and more particularly in
Vedic India, we see a plant entirely grown on native
soil, and entirely nurtured by native air. For this*
reason, because the religion of the Veda was so com-
pletely guarded from all strange infections, it is full
of lessons which the student of religion could learn
nowhere else.

Now what have the critics of the Veda to say
against this 1 They say that the Vedic poems show
clear traces of Babylonian influences.

I must enter into some details, because, small as
they seem, you can see that they involve very wide
consequences.

There is one verse in the Rig-veda, VIII. 78, 2^,
which has been translated as follows : ‘ 0 Indra,
bring to us a brilliant jewel, a cow, a horse, an orna-
ment, together with a golden Man^*.’

Now what is a golden Man 4 ? The word does not
occur again by itself, either in the Veda or anywhere
else, and it has been identified by Vedic scholars with
the Latin mina, the Greek uva., the Phoenician manah
(rr^o)®, the well-known weight which we actually
possess now among the treasures brought from. Ba-
bylon and Nineveh to the British Museum*.

^ A. n&h bhara vyaregfanam g£m asvain abliya%anam Sa^a man^
biramyaya.

“ Grassman translates, ‘ Zugleich mit goldenem Gerath Lndwig,

‘ Zusammt mit goldenem Zierrath Zimmer, ‘ Und eine Mana gold.'
The Petersburg Dictionary explains mana by ‘ ein bestimmtes Gerath
oder Gewicht’ (Gold).

® According to Dr. Hanpt, Die Sumerisch-akkadische Sprache,
p. 272, mana is an Accadian word.

* According to the weights of the lions and ducks preserved in
the British Museum, an Assryian mina was=: 7,747 grains. The
same difference is still preserved to the present day, as' the man of

126

LECTURE IV.

If ttis were so, it would be irrefragable evidence
of at all events a commercial intercourse between
Babylon and India at a very early time, though it
would in no way prove a real influence of Semitic
on Indian thought. But is it sol If we translate
sSi,kk man4 hiranyay^ by ‘ with a mina of gold,’ we
must take man4 hirawyay^ as instrumental cases.
But saA:i never governs an instrumental case. This
translation therefore is impossible, and although
the passage is difficult, because man^ does not occur
again in the Big-veda, I should think we might take
mani hirawyayi for a dual, and translate, ‘ Give us
also two golden armlets.’ To suppose that the Vedie
poets should have borrowed this one word and this
one measure from the Babylonians, would be against
all the rules of historical criticism. The word man4
never occurs again in the whole of Sanskrit literature,
no other Babylonian weight occurs again in the whole
of Sanskrit literature, and it is not likely that a poet
who asks for a cow and a horse, would ask in the same
breath for a foreign weight of gold, that is, for about
sixty sovereigns.

But this is not the only loan that India has been
supposed to have negotiated in Babylon. The twenty-
seven Nakshatras, or the twenty-seven constellations,
which were chosen in India as a kind of lunar Zodiac,
were supposed to have come from Babylon. ’ Now
the Babylonian Zodiac was solar, and, in spite of re-
peated researches, no trace of a lunar Zodiac has been
found, where so many things have been found, in

Shiraz and Bagdad is just double that of Tabraz and Bushir, the
average of the former being 14.0 and that of the latter only 6.985.
See Cunningham, Journal of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, 1881,
p. 163.

OBJBCTIOlirS. 127

the cuneiform inscriptions. But supposing even that
a lunar Zodiac had been discovered in Babylon, no one
acquainted with Vedic literature and with the ancient
Vedic ceremonial would easily allow himself to be
persuaded that the Hindus had borrowed that simple
division of the sky from the Babylonians. It is well
known that most of the Vedic sacrifices depend on
the moon, far more than on the sun h As the Psalmist
says, ‘ He appointed the moon for seasons; the sun
knoweth his going down,’ we read in the Eig-veda
X. 85, 18, in a verse addressed to sun and moon,
‘ They walk by their own power, one after the other
(or from east to west), as playing children they go
round the sacrifice. The one looks upon all the
worlds, the other is bom again and again, deter-
mining the seasons.

‘He becomes new and new, when he is born; as
the herald of the days, he goes before the dawns.
By his approach he determines their share for the
gods, the moon increases a long life.’

The moon, then, determines the seasons, the ritus, the
moon fixes the share, that is, the sacrificial oblation for
all the gods. The seasons and the sacrifices were in fact
so intimately connected together in the thoughts of
the ancient Hindus, that one of the commonest names
for priest was r^'tv-i^, literally, the season-sacrificer.

Besides the rites which have to be performed every
day, such as the five Mah^ya^^as, and the Agnihotra
in the morning and the evening, the important sacri-
fices in Vedic times were the Full and New-moon
sacrifices (darsapfirream 4 sa) ; the Season-sacrifices (k^
turm^sya), each season consisting of four months 2;

' Preface to the fourth volume of my edition of the Rig-veda, p. li.

® Yaisvadevam on the full-moon of Phalguna, VarujiapraghasdA

128

LECTUEE IT.

and the Half-yearly sacrifices, at the two solstices.
There are other sacrifices (%raya«a, &e.) to be per-
formed in autumn and summer, others in winter and
spring, whenever rice and barley are ripening

The regulation of the seasons, as one of the funda-
mental conditions of an incipient society, seems in
fact to have been so intimately connected with the
worship of the gods, as the guardians of the seasons
and the protectors of law and order, that'it is sometimes
difficult to say whether in their stated sacrifices the
maintenance of the calendar or the maintenance of
the worship of the gods was more prominent in the
minds of the old Vedic priests.

The twenty-seven Nakshatras then were clearly
suggested by the moon’s passaged Nothing was
more natural for the sake of counting days, months,
or seasons than to observe the twenty-seven places
which the moon occupied in her passage from any
point of the sky back to the same point. It was far
easier than to determine the sun’s position either
from day to day, or from month to month ; for the
stars, being hardly visible at the actual rising and
setting of the sun, the idea of the sun’s conjunction
with certain stars could not suggest itself to a listless
observer. The moon, on the contrary, progressing
from night to night, &,nd coming successively in con-
tact with certain stars, was like the finger of a clock,
moving round a circle, and coming in contact with
one figure after another on the dial-plate of the sky.
Nor would the portion of about one-third of a

on the filll-moon of AsMdIAa, SsikamedhaA on the full-moon of
'Krittikk; see Boehtlingk, Dictionary, s.v.

' See Vishjiu-smnti, ed. Jolly, LIX. 4 ; Aryahhaia, Introduction.

“ See Preface to yoI. iv of Rig-veda, p. li (1862).

THE LESSONS OE THE VEDA.

145

or tMrty-three, and one poet assigns eleven gods
to tlie sky, eleven to the earth, and eleven to the
■waters h the waters here intended being those of the
atmosphere and the clouds. These thirty-three gods
have even wives apportioned to them^, though few
of these only have as yet attained to the honour
of a name

These thirty-three gods, however, by no means
include all the Vedic gods, for such important deities
as Agni, the fire. Soma, the rain, the Maruts or Storm-
gods, the Asvins, the gods of Morning and Evening,
the Waters, the Dawn, the Sun are mentioned sepa-
rately; and there are not wanting passages in which
the poet is carried away into exaggerations, till he
proclaims the number of his gods to be, not only
thirty-three, but three thousand three hundred and
thirty-nine ^

If therefore there must be a name for the religion
of the Rig-veda, polytheism would seem at first sight
the most appropriate. Polytheism, however, has as-
sumed with us a meaning which renders it totally
inapplicable to the Vedic religion.

Our ideas of polytheism being chiefly derived from
Greece and Eome, we understand by it a certain more
or less organised system of gods, different in power
and rank, and all subordinate to a supreme God, a

^ Eig-veda 1. 139, ii.

® Eig-veda in. 6, 9.

® The following names of Devapatnis or wives of the gods are
given in the Vaitana Sutra XV. 3 (ed. Garhe) : PrithW, the wife
of Agni, V^ of Vita, SenI of Indra, DhenI of Brihaspati, Pathyl
of Pushan, Gayatrl of Vasn, Trish^nbh of Endra, A^agati of Aditya,
Anusyuhh of Mitra, Vir% of Varuwa, Pahkti of Vishwu, Diksha of
Soma.

* Eig-veda III. 9, 9.

' Ii

146

LECTUEE V.

Zeus or Jupiter. Tte Vedic polytheism differs from
the Greek and Eoman polytheism, and, I may add,
likewise from the polytheism of the Ural-Altaic, the
Polynesian, the American, and most of the African
races, in the same manner as a confederacy of -village
communities differs from a monarchy. There are
traces of an earlier stage of village-community life
to be discovered in the later republican and monar-
chical constitutions, and in the same manner nothinar
can be clearer, particularly in Greece, than that the
monarchy of Zeus was preceded by what may be
called the septarchy of several of the great gods of
Greece. The same remark applies to the mythology
of the Teutonic nations alsoh In the Veda, however,
the gods worshipped as supreme by each sept stand
still side by side. No one is first always, no one is
last always. Even gods of a decidedly inferior and
limited character assume occasionally in the eyes
of a devoted poet a supreme place above all other
gods®. It was necessary, therefore, for the purpose
of accurate reasoning to have a name, different from
jpolyiheism, to signify this worship of single gods, each
occupying for a time a supreme position, and I pro-

^ Grimm sliowed tliat Tborr is sometimes tlie supreme god,
while at other times he is the son of Odinn. This, as Professor
Zimmer truly remarks, need not he regarded as the result of a revo-
lution, or even of gradual decay, as in the case of Dyaus and Tyr,
hut simply as inherent in the character of a nascent polytheism.
See Zeitschrift fiir D. A., vol. xii. p. 174.

® * Among not yet civilised races prayers are addressed to a god
with a special object, and to that god who is supposed to he most
powerful in a special domain. He hecomes for the moment the
highest god to whom all others must give place. He may be
invoked as the highest and the only god, without any slight being
intended for the other gods.' Zimmer, 1 . c. p. 175.

THE LESSONS OF THE VEEA.

147

posed for it the name of Kathenotheism, that is a
worship of one god after another, or of Eenoiheism,
the worship of single gods. This shorter name of
Eenoiheism has found more general acceptance, as
conveying more definitely the opposition between
Monotheism, the worship of one only God, and Eeno-
theism, the worship of single gods; and, if but
properly defined, it will answer its purpose very
well. However, in researches of this kind we can-
not be too much on our guard against technical
terms. They are inevitable, I know ; but they are
almost always misleading. There is, for instance,
a hymn addressed to the Indus and the rivers that
fall into it, of which I hope to read you a transla-
tion, because it determines very accurately the geo-
graphical scene on which the poets of the Veda passed
their life. Now native scholars call these rivers de-
vat4s or deities, and European translators too speak
of them as gods and goddesses. But in the language
used by the poet with regard to the Indus and the
other rivers, there is nothing to justify us in saying
that he considered these rivers as gods sind goddesses,
unless we mean by gods and goddesses something very
different from what the Greeks called Biver-gods and
Biver-goddesses, Nymphs, Najades, or even Muses.

And what applies to these rivers, applies more or
less to all the objects of Vedic worship. They all are
still oscillating between what is seen by the senses,
what is created by fancy, and what is postulated by the
understanding; they are things, persons, causes, ac-
cording to the varying disposition of the poets : and
if we call them gods or goddesses, we must remember
the remark of an ancient native theologian, who re-
minds us that by devatd or deity he means no more

148

LEGTUBE V.

than the object celebrated in a hymn, while Itishi or
seer means no more than the subject or the author
of a hymn.

It is difficult to treat of the so-caUed gods cele-
brated in the Veda according to any system, for the
simple reason that the concepts of these gods and the
hymns addressed to them sprang up spontaneously
and without any pre-established plan. It is best
perhaps for our purpose to follow an ancient Brah-
manical writer, who is supposed to have lived about
400 B.c. He tells us of students of the Veda, before
his time, who admitted three deities only, viz. Agni
or fire, whose place is on the earth ; V ^yu or Indra,
the wind and the god of the thunderstorm, whose
place is in the air; and Sfiry a, the sun, whose place
is in the sky. These deities, they maintained, re-
ceived severally many appellations, in consequence
of their greatness, or of the diversity of their functions,
just as a priest, according to the functions which he
performs at various sacrifices, receives various names.

This is one view of the Vedic gods, and, though too
narrow, it cannot be denied that there is some truth
in it. A very useful division of the Vedic gods
might be made, and has been made by Y^ska, into
terrestrial, aerial, and celestial, and if the old Hindu
theologians meant no more than that all the mani-
festations of divine power in nature might be traced
back to three centres of force, one in the sky, one in
the air, and one on the earth, he deserves great credit
for his sagacity.

But he himself perceived evidently that this gene-
ralisation was not quite applicable to all the gods, and
he goes on to say, ‘ Or, it may be, these gods are all
distinct beings, for the praises addressed to them are

THE LESSONS OE THE VEDA.

149

distinct, and their appellations also.’ This is quite
right. It is the very object of naost of these divine
names to impart distinct individuality to the mani-
festations of the powers of nature ; and though the
philosopher or the inspired poet might perceive that
these numerous names were but names, while that
which was named was one and one only, this was
certainly not the idea of most of the Vedic jBishis
themselves, still less of the people who listened to
their songs at fairs and festivals. It is the peculiar
character of that phase of religious thought which
we have to study in the Veda, that in it the Divine
is conceived and represented as manifold, and that
many functions are shared in common by various
gods, no attempt having yet been made at organising
the whole body of the gods, sharply separating one
from the other, and subordinating all of them to
several or, in the end, to one supreme head.

Availing ourselves of the division of the Vedic
gods into terrestrial, aerial, and celestial, as proposed
by some of the earliest Indian theologians, we should
have to begin with the gods connected with the earth.

Before we examine them, however, we have first
to consider one of the earliest objects of worship and
adoration, namely Earth and Heaven, or Heaven
and Earth, conceived as a divine couple. Not only
in India, but among many other nations, both
savage, half-savage, or civilised, we meet with
Heaven and Earth as one of the earliest objects,
pondered on, transfigured, and animated by the early
poets, and more or less clearly conceived by early
philosophers. It is surprising that it should be so,
for the conception of the Earth as an independent
being, and of Heaven as an independent being, and

150

LBcnruiiB V.

tten of both together as a divine couple embracing
the whole universe, requires a considerable effort of
abstraction, far more than the concepts of other
divine powers, such as the Fire, the Rain, the Light-
ning, or the Sun.

Still so it is, and as it may help us to under-
stand the ideas about Heaven and Earth, as we find
them in the Veda, and show us at the same time the
strong contrast between the mythology of the Aryans
and that of real savages (a contrast of great im-
portance, though I admit very difficult to explain),
I shall read you first some extracts from a book,
published by a friend of mine, the Rev. William
Wyatt Gili, for many years an active and most
successful missionary in Mangaia, one of those Poly-
nesian islands that form a girdle round one quarter
of our globed and all share in the same language,
the same religion, the same mythology, and the same
customs. The book is called ‘Myths and Songs
from the South Pacific®,’ and it is full of interest to
the student of mythology and religion.

The story, as told him by the natives of Mangaia,
runs as follows

‘ The sky is built of solid blue stone. At one time
it almost touched the earth ; resting upon the stout
broad leaves of the teve (which attains the height of

^ ‘Eshandelt sichhier nichtum amerikanische oder afrikanische
Zersplitteruhg, soadern eine uberraschende Gleichartigkeit dehnt
sicb durck die Weite and Breite des Stillen Oceans, and wean wir
Oceaniea in der voUen Auffassung nehmen mit Einsohluss Mikro-
und Mela-nesiens (bis Malaya), selbst weiter, Es lasst sick sagen,
dass ein einkeitlicher Gedankenbau, in etwa 120 Eangen und
Breilegraden, ein Viertel unsers Erdglobus iiberwolbt.’ Bastian,
Die Heilige Sage der Polynesier, p. 57.

“ Henry 8. King & Co., London, 1876.

B. 58.

THE LESSONS OF THE VEDA.

151

about six feet) and the delicate indigenous arrow-root
(whose slender stem rarely exceeds three feet). ... .
In this narrow space between earth and sky the inha-
bitants of this world were pent up. Ku, whose usual
residence was in Avaiki, or the shades, had come up
for a time to this world of ours. Pitying the wretched
confined residence of the inhabitants, he employed
himself in endeavouring to raise the sky a little.
For this purpose he cut a number of strong stakes
of different kinds of trees, and firmly planted them
in the ground at Eangimotia, the centre of the island,
and with him the centre of the world. This was a
considerable improvement, as mortals were thereby
enabled to stand erect and to walk about without in-
convenience. Hence Eu was named “ The sky-sup-
porter.” Wherefore Teka sings (1794) :

Force up the sky, O Ku,

And let the space be clear r'

' One day when the old man was surveying his
work, his graceless son M 4 ui contemptuously asked
him what he was doing there. Eu replied, “Who
told youngsters to talk 1 Take care of yourself, or

I will hurl you out of existence.”

‘ “ Do it, then,” shouted M^ui.

‘ Eu was as good as his word, and forthwith seized
M^ui, who was small of stature, and threw him to a
great height. In falling M 4 ui assumed the form of
a bird, and lightly touched the ground, perfectly un-
harmed. M 4 ui, now thirsting for revenge, in a mo-
ment resumed his natural form, but exaggerated to
gigantic proportions, and ran to his father, saying ;

“Ku, who supportest the many heavens,

The third, even to the highest, ascend

Inserting his head between the old man's legs, lie

152

LECTUBE V.

exerted all Ms prodigious strength, and hurled poor
Eu, sky and all, to a tremendous height, — so high,
indeed, that the blue sky could never get back
again. Unluckily, however, for the sky-supporting
Eu, his head and shoulders got entangled among the
stars. He struggled hard, but fruitlessly, to extri-
cate himself. M4ui walked off well pleased with
having raised the sky to its present height, but left
half his father’s body and both his legs ingloriously
suspended between heaven and earth. Thus perished
Eu. His body rotted' away, and his bones came
tumbling down from time to time, and were shivered
on the earth into countless fragments. These shivered
bones of Eu are scattered over every hill and valley
of Mangaia, to the very edge of the sea.’

What the natives call ‘ the bones of Eu ’ (te ivi o
Eu) are pieces of pumice-stone.

Now let us consider, first of all, whether this story,
which with slight variations is told all over the
Polynesian islands^, is pure non-sense, or whether
there was originally some sense in it. My conviction
is that non-sense is everywhere the child of sense, only
that unfortunately many children, like that youngster
Mhn, consider themselves much wiser than their
fathers, and occasionally succeed in hurling them out
of existence.

It is a peculiarity of many of the ancient myths
that they represent events wMch happen every day,
or every year, as having happened once upon a time
The daily battle between day and night, the yearly
battle between winter and spring, are represented

^ There is a second version of the story even in the small isla-na
of Mangaia; see Myths and Songs, p. 71.

“ See before, p.

THE LESSONS OE a?HB VEDA.

153

almost like liistorical events, and some of tlie episodes
f and touches belonging originally to these constant
battles of nature, have certainly been transferred
into and mixed up with battles that took place at
a certain time, such as, for instance, the siege of
Troy. When historical recollections faded, legendary
accounts of the ancient battles between Night
and Morning, Winter and Spring, were always at
hand ; and, as in modern times we constantly hear
‘good stories,’ which we have known from our child-
hood, told again and again of any man whom they
seem to fit, in the same manner, in ancient times, any
act of prowess, or daring, or mischief, originally told of
the sun, ‘the orient Conqueror of gloomy Night,’ was
readily transferred to and believed of any local hero
who might seem to be a second J upiter, or Mars, or
Hercules.

I have little doubt therefore that as the accounts
of a deluge, for instance, which we find almost every-
where, are originally recollections of the annual
torrents of rain or snow that covered the little
worlds within the ken of the ancient village-bards,
this tearing asunder of heaven and earth too was
originally no more than a description of what might
be seen every morning. During a dark night the
sky seemed to cover the earth; the two seemed to
be one, and could not be distinguished one from the
other. Then came the Dawn, which with its bright
rays lifted the covering of the dark night to a certain
point, till at last M^ui appeared, small in stature,
a mere child, that is, the sun of the morning — thrown
' up suddenly, as it were, when his first rays shot
through the sky from beneath the horizon, then
falling back to the earth, like a bird, and rising in

154

LBCTUEB V.

gigantic form on the morning sky. The dawn now
was hurled away, and the sky was seen lifted high
above the earth; and M^ui, the sun, marched on
well pleased with having raised the sky to its present
height.

Why pumice-stone should be called the bones of
Eu, we cannot tell, without knowing a great deal more
of the language of Mangaia than we do at present.
It is most likely an independent saying, and was
afterwards united with the story of Eu and Miui.

Now I must quote at least a few extracts from
a Maori legend as written down by Judge Manning ^ :

‘ This is the Genesis of the New Zealanders :

‘ The Heavens which are above us, and the Earth
which lies beneath us, are the progenitors of men,
and the origin of all things.

‘Formerly the Heaven lay upon the Earth, and
all was darkness. . . .

‘And the children of Heaven and Earth sought to
discover the difference between light and darkness,
between day and night. ...

‘So the sons of Eangi (Heaven) and of Papa
(Earth) consulted together, and said: “Let us seek
means whereby to destroy Heaven and Earth, or to
separate them from each other.”

‘ Then said Tumatauenga (the God of War), “ Let
us destroy them both.”

‘ Then said Tane-Mahuta (the Forest God), “ Not so ;
let them be separated. Let one of them go upwards
and become a stranger to us ; let the other remain
below and be a parent for us.”

‘Then four of the gods tried to separate Heaven

I Bastian, Heilige Sage der Bolynesier, p. 36.

THE LESSONS OF THE VEDA.

165

and Earth, but did not succeed, while the fifth, Tane,
succeeded.

‘ After Heaven and Earth had been separated, great
storms arose, or, as the poet expresses it, one of their
sons, Tawhiri-Matea, the god of the winds, tried to
revenge the outrage committed on his parents by
his brothers. Then follow dismal dusky days, and
dripping chilly skies, and arid scorching blasts. All
the gods fight, tiU at last Tu only remains, the god
of war, who had devoured all his brothers, except
the Storm. More fights follow, in which the greater
part of the earth was overwhelmed by the waters,
and but a small portion remained dry. After that,
light continued to increase, and as the light increased,
so also the people who had been hidden between
Heaven and Earth increased. . . . And so generation
was added to generation down to the time of M 4 ui-
Potiki, he who brought death into the world.

‘Now in these latter days Heaven remains far re-
moved from his wife, the Earth; but the love of the
wife rises upward in sighs towards her husband. These
are the mists which fly upwards from the mountain-
tops ; and the tears of Heaven fall downwards on his
wife ; behold the dew-drops ! ’

So far the Maori Genesis.

Let us now return to the Yeda, and compare these
crude and somewhat grotesque legends with the
language of the ancient Aryan poets. In the hymns
of the Hig-veda the separating and keeping apart of
Heaven and Earth is several times alluded to, and
here too it is represented as the work of the most
valiant gods. In I. 67, 3 it is Agni, fire, who holds
the earth and supports the heaven ; in X. 89, 4 it is
Indra who keeps them apart ; in IX loi, 1 5 Soma is

166

LECTUEE V.

celebrated for tbe same deed, and in III. 31,12 other
gods too share the same honour h

In the Aitareya Br4hmawa we read ^ : ‘ These two
worlds (Heaven and Earth) were once joined together.
They went asunder. Then it did not rain, nor did
the sun shine. And the five tribes did not agree
with one another. The gods then brought the two
(Heaven and Earth) together, and when they came
together, they performed a wedding of the gods.’

Here we have in a shorter form the same funda-
mental ideas ; first, that formerly Heaven and Earth
were together ; that afterwards they were separated ;
that when they were thus separated there was war
tliroughout nature, and neither rain nor sunsMne ;
that, lastly. Heaven and Earth were conciliated, and
that then a great wedding took place.

Now I need hardly remind those who are acquainted
with Greek and Eoman literature, how familiar these
and similar conceptions about a marriage between
Heaven and Earth were in Greece and Italy. They
seem to possess there a more special reference to the
annual reconciliation between Heaven and Earth,
which takes place in spring, and to their former
estrangement during winter. But the first cosmo-
logical separation of the two always points to the
want of light and the impossibility of distinction
during the night, and the gradual lifting up of the
blue sky through the rising of the sun ®.

In the Homeric hymns * the Earth is addressed as

‘Mother of Gods, the wife of the starry Heavea® ;’

1 Bergaigne, LaEeligion¥ 4 dique, p. 240.

“ Ait. Br. IV, 27 ; Muir, iv. p. 23.

“ feee Muir, iv. p. 24. * Homer, Hymn xxx. 17.

^ XaI/)« 6eav SKo)^ Oipconv iimpoetiros.

THE LESSONS OF THE VEDA.

157

and the Heaven or .^Ether is often called the father.
Their marriage too is described, as, for instance, by
Euripides, when he says :

‘There is the miglity Earth, Jove’s jEther ;

He (the iEIther) is the creator of men and gods ;

The earth receiving the moist drops of rain.

Bears mortals.

Bears food, and the tribes of animals.

Hence she is not unjustly regarded
As the mother of allh’

And what is more curious still is that we have
evidence that Euripides received this doctrine from
his teacher, the philosopher Anaxagoras. For Dio-
nysius of Halicarnassus 2 tells, us that Euripides
frequented the lectures of Anaxagoras. Now, it was
the theory of that philosopher that originally all
things were in all things, but that afterwards they be-
came separated. Euripides later in life associated with
Sokrates, and became doubtful regarding that theory.
He accordingly propounds the ancient doctrine by
the mouth of another, namely Melanippe, who says :

‘ This saying (myth) is not mine, but came from
my mother, that formerly Heaven and Earth were
one shape ; but when they were separated from each
other, they gave birth and brought all things into
the light, trees, birds, beasts, and the fishes whom
the sea feeds, and the race of mortals.’

^ Euripides, Chrysippus, fragm. 6 (edit. Didot, p. 824):

Tma iM€yl(rTr} Kai Aios alB^p,

6 piv avdpd>n:aiv Ka\ Bea>v yevircop^

^ vypo^6\ovs orayovas voriovs
Trapahe^apiVT] tIktu BparovSj
tIktu de fiopav, <pv^d re 6r}p^v^
oBev ovK dbtKCis
p.r}Tr)p irdvrmv vcvopi'O'TaL

^ Dionysius Halic. vol. v. p. 356; M'liL V- ^ 1 -

158

LECTURE V.

Thus we have met with the same idea of the ori-
ginal union, of a separation, and of a subsequent
re-union of Heaven and Earth in Greece, in India,
and in the Polynesian islands.

Let us now see how the poets of the Veda address
these two beings, Heaven and Earth.

They are mostly addressed in the dual, as two
beings forming but one concept. We meet, however,
with verses which are addressed to the Earth by
herself, and which speak of her as ‘ kind, without
thorns, and pleasant to dwell on\’ while there are clear
traces in some of the hymns that at one time Dyaus,
the sky, was the supreme deity ^ When invoked
together they are called Dy4v4pr«thivyau, from
dyu, the sky, and prithivl, the broad earth.

If we examine their epithets, we find that many
of them reflect simply the physical aspects of Heaven
and Earth. Thus they are called uru, wide, uru-
vya/ias, widely expanded, dfire-ante, with limits
far apart, gabhira, deep, ghritavat, giving fat,
madhudugha, yielding honey or dew, payasvat,
full of milk, bhhri-retas, rich in seed.

Another class of epithets represents them already
as endowed with certain human and superhuman
qualities, such as as a at, never tiring, a^ar a, not
decaying, which brings us very near to immortal;
adruh, not injuring, or not deceiving, praZ;etas,
provident, and then pit^-m^ti, father and mother,
devaputra, having the gods for their sons, rita-
vridh and ritavat, protectors of the Eita, of what is
right, guardians of eternal laws.

Here you see what is so interesting in the Veda,

^ Eig-vecla I. 22, 15. ■

^ See Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. ii. p. 468.

THE LESSONS OF THE VEDA.

161

And again ^ : ‘He was a good workman wlio pro-,
dueed heaven and earth ; the wise, who by his
might brought together these two (heaven and earth),
the wide, the deep, the well-fashioned in the bottom-
less space.’

Very soon this great work of making heaven and
earth was ascribed, like other mighty works, to the
mightiest of their gods, to Indra. At first we read
that Indra, originally only a kind of Jupiter fluvius,
or god of rain, stretched out heaven and earth, like
a hide^; that he held them in his hand^, that he
upholds heaven and earth and that he grants heaven
and earth to his worshippers ®. But very soon Indra
is praised for having made Heaven and Earth “ ; and
then, when the poet remembers that Heaven and
Earth had been praised elsewhere as the parents
of the gods, ^nd more especially as the parents of
Indra, he does not hesitate for a moment, but says'^:
‘What poets living before us have reached the end
of all tl^ greatness 1 for thou hast indeed begotten
thy father and thy mother together ® from thy own
body ! ’

That is a strong measure, and a god who once
could do that, was no doubt capable of anything
afterwards. The same idea, namely that Indra is
greater than heaven and earth, is expressed in a less
outrageous way by another poet, who says® that
Indra is greater than heaven and earth, and that

^ Eig-wecla IV. 56, 3. ^ L. c. VIII. 6, 5.

^ L. c. Ill 30, ,5. ^ L. c. III. 32, 8.

® L. c. Ill 34, 8. « L. c. VIII. 36, 4. c. X. 54, 3-

* Cf. IV. 17, 4, where Byaus is the father of Indra ; see however
Muir, iv. 31, note.

® Eig-veda VI. 30, i.

162

LBCTUBE V.

both, together axe only a half of Indra. Or again ^ :
‘ The divine Dyaus bowed before Indra, before Indra
the great Earth bowed with her wide spaces.’ ‘ At
the birth of thy splendour Dyaus trembled, the Earth
trembled for fear of thy anger

Thus, from one point of view. Heaven and Earth
were the greatest gods, they were the parents of
everything, and therefore of the gods also, such as
Indra and others.

But, from another point of view, every god that
was considered as supreme at one time or other,
must necessarily have made heaven and earth, must
at all events be greater than heaven and earth, and
thus the child became greater than the father, aye,
became the father of his father. Indra was not
the only god that created heaven and earth. In one
hymn ® that creation is ascribed to Soma and Phshan,
by no means very prominent characters ; in another*
to Hiranyagarbha (the golden germ) ; in another
again to a god who is simply called DhitH, the
Creator or Visvakarman ®, the maker of all things.
Other gods, such as Mitra and SavitW, names of
the sun, are praised for upholding Heaven and Earth,
and the same task is sometimes performed by the
old god Yaru»a ’ also.

What I wish you to observe in all this is the
perfect freedom with which these so-called gods or
Devas are handled, and particularly the ease and
naturalness with which now the one, now the other
emerges as supreme out of this chaotic theogony.

' Rig-veda 1. 13 1, i.

® L. c. II. 40, 1.

“ L. e. X. 190, 3.

'' L. c. VI. 70, I.

“ L. c. IV. 17, 2.
* L. c. X. 1 21, 9.
' L. c. X. 81, 2.

THE LESSONS OF THE VEDA.

163

This is the peculiar character of the ancient Vedic
religion, totally different both from the Polytheism
and from the Monotheism as we see it in the Greek
and the Jewish religions ; and if the Veda had taught
us nothing else hut this henotheistic phase, which
must everywhere have preceded the more highly
organised phase of Polytheism which we see in
Greece, in Eome, and elsewhere, the study of the
Veda would not have been in vain.

It may be quite true that the poetry of the Veda
is neither beautiful, in our sense of the word, nor
very profound ; but it is instructive. When we see
those two giant spectres of Heaven and Earth on
the background of the Vedic religion, exerting their
influence for a time, and then vanishing before the
light of younger and more active gods, we learn a
lesson which it is wel to learn, and which we can
hardly learn anywhere else — the lesson how gods were
made and unmade — how the Beyond or the Infinite
was named by different names in order to bring it
near to the mind of man, to make it for a time com-
prehensible, until, when name after name had proved
of no avail, a nameless God was felt to answer best
the restless cravings of the human heart.

I shall next translate to you the hymn to which I
referred before as addressed to the Eivers. If the
Rivers are to be called deities at aU, they belong to
the class of terrestrial deities. But the reason why
I single out this hymn is not so much because it
throws new light on the theogonic process, but
because it may help to impart some reality to the
vague conceptions which we form to ourselves of the
ancient Vedic poets and their surroundings. The
rivers invoked are, as we shall see, the real rivers of

164

LECTUEE V,

the Pebj^I), and the poem shows a much wider geo-
graphical horizon than we should expect from a mere
Tillage bard h

1 . Let the poet declare, 0 Waters, your exceeding
greatness, here in the seat of Vivasvatl By seven
and seven they have come forth in three courses, but
the Sindhu (the Indus) exceeds al the other wander-
ing rivers by her strength.

2 . Warum dug out paths for thee to walk on^
when thou rannest to the race^. Thou proceedest

1 Eig-veda X. 75. See Hibbert Lectures, Lect. iv.

^ Vivasvat is a name of the sun, and the seat or home of Vivasvat
can hardly he anything but the earth, as the home of the sun, or,
in a more special sense, the place where a sacrifice is offered.

I formerly translated yat v%an ablii ^dravaA tvam by ^when
thou rannest for the prizes/ Grassman had translated similarly,
When thou, 0 Sindhu, rannest to the prize of the battle,* while
Ludwig wrote, ‘When thou, 0 Sindhu, wast flowing on to greater
powers/ V%a, connected with vegeo, vigeo, vigil, wacker (see
Curtius, Grundziige, No. 159), is one of the many difficult words in
the Yeda the general meaning of which may be guessed, but in
many places cannot yet be determined with certainty. V%a occurs
very frequently, both in the singular and the plural, and some of
its meanings are clear enough. The Petersburg Dictionary gives
the following list of them — swiftness, race, prize of race/ gain,
treasure, race-horse, etc. Here we perceive at once the difficulty
of tracing all these meanings back to a common source, though it
might he possible to begin with the meanings of strength, strife,
contest, race, whether friendly or warlike, then to proceed to what
is won in a race or in war, yiz. booty, treasure, and lastly to take
v%aA in the more general sense of acquisitions, goods, even goods
bestowed as gifts. We have a similar transition of meaning in the
Greek a^Xo?, contest, contest for a prize, and MXopj the prize of
contest, reward, gift, while in the plural ra MXa stands again for
contest, or even the place of combat. The Tedic va^ambhara may
in fact be rendered by ddXo^opos, vagasati by dBXoavvrj.

The transition from fight to prize is seen in passages such as :

Hig-veda VI. 45> ^2, vagfan indra «rav^yyan tvdya geshma hitam

THB LESSONS OP THE VEDA.

165

on a precipitous ridge of the earth, when thou art
lord in the van of all the moving streams.

3 . ‘ The sound rises up to heaven above the earth ;
she stirs up with splendour her endless power b As
from a cloud, the showers thunder forth, when the
Sindhu comes, roaring like a bull.

4 . ‘ To thee, 0 Sindhu, they (the other rivers) come
as lowing mother-cows (run) to their young with their
milk^. Like a king in battle thou leadest the two
wings, when thou reachest the front of these down-
rushing rivers.

5 . ‘Accept, 0 Grahg^ (Ganges), Tamun^ (Jumna),
Sarasvatl (Surshti), iSutudri (Sutlej), Parushwt (Irl-
vati, Kavi), my praise® ! With the Asikni (Akesines)
listen, 0 MarudvWdh^^ and with the Vitastd (Hy-

cIMaam, ^ May we with thy help, G Indra, win the glorious fights,
the offered prize ^ (cf.

Rig-veda YIII. 19, 18, t6 it v%ehhi/i gigjuk mah^t dhanani,
^ They won great wealth by battles.’

What we want for a proper understanding of our verse, are
passages where we have, as here, a movement towards va^^as in the
plural. Such passages are few; for instance: X. 53, 8, ^tra
^ahama y6 4 san teva/i §ivan vay 4 m tit tarema abhi v%an, ^ Let
us leave here those who were unlucky (the dead), and let us get up
to lucky toils,’ Xo more is probably meant here when the Sindhu
is said to run towards her v%as, that is, her struggles, her fights,
her race across the mountains with the other rivers.

^ On OTshma, strength, see Rig-veda, translation, voL i. p, 105.
We find subhrdm Mshmam II. ii, 4; and iyarti with ^ilshmani
IV. 17, 12.

® See Muir, Sanskrit Texts, V. p. 3

® *0 Marudvmlh^ with Asikni, Vitasta; 0 Ar^ikiya, listen with
the Sushoma,’ ‘Asikni and Vitasta and Marud

with the Sushoma, hear us, O Arytkiy^,’ Gmssmann.

^ Marudvridha, a general name for river. According to Roth
the combined course of the Akesines and Hydaspes, before the
junction with the Hydraotes : according to Ludwig, the river after

168

LECTURE V.

daspes, Beliat); 0 listen with the Sus-

hom^

6. ‘First thou goest united with the Tr^■sh^;4ma
on thy journey, with the Susartu, the Ras4 (Ramh^,
Araxes® 1), and the /Sveti, — 0 Sindhu, with the Kubh4
(Kophen, Cabul river) to the Gomati (Gomal), with
the Mehatnu to the Krumu (Kurum)— with whom
thou proceedest together.

7 ‘Sparkhng, bright, with mighty splendour she
carries the waters across the plains — the unconquered
Sindbu, the quickest of the quick, like a beautiful
mare — a sight to see.

8. ‘Rich in horses, in chariots, in garments, in
gold, in booty ^ in wool®, and in straw®, the Sindhu,

the junction with Hjdraotes. Zimmer (Altindisches Leben, p. 1 2)
adopts Eoth’Sj Kiepert in his maps follows Ludwig s opinion.

^ According to Yaska the Ar^ikiya is the Yipa^. Yivien de Saint-
Martin takes it for the country watered by the Suwan, the Soanos
of Megasthenes.

2 According to Yaska the Sushoma is the Indus. Yiyien de
Saint-Martin identifies it with the Suwan. Zimmer ( 1 . c. p. 14)
points out that in Arrian, Indica, iv. 12, there is a various reading
Soamos for Soanos.

® Chips from a German Workshop, vol. i. p. 157.

^ Yapinivatt is by no means an easy word. Hence all transla-
tors vary, and none settles the meaning. Muir translates, * yielding
nutriment;’ Zimmer, ‘having plenty of quick horses;' Ludwig, ‘like a
strong mare.’ Yapin, no doubt, means a strong horse, a racer,
but vapini never occurs in the Eig-veda in the sense of a mare, and
the text is not vapinivat, but vapinivati. If vapini meant mare, we
might translate rich in mares, but that would be a mere repetition
after svasva, possessed of good horses. Yapinivati is chiefiy applied
to Ushas, Sarasvati, and here to the river Sindhu. It is joined
with vapebhi/i, Eig-veda I. 3. xo, which, if vapini meant mare,
would mean ‘rich in mares through horses.’ We also read, Eig-veda
I. 48, 16, sdm (na^ naimikshvd) vi^paiA v^inivati, which we can
hardly translate by ‘ give ns ■ horses, thou who art possessed of
mares;’ nor, Eig-veda I, 92, 15, yukshva hi v%inivati davan^

THE LESSOHS OE THE VEDA.

167

handsome and young, clothes herself in sweet
flowers’^.

9. ^The Sindhu has yoked her easy chariot with
horses; may she conquer prizes for us in the race.

^ harness tlie torses, thou who art rich in mares.' In most of the
passages where v%imvati occurs, the goddess thus addressed is
represented as rich, and asked to bestow wealth, and I should
therefore prefer to take as a collective abstract noun, like

tretinl, in the sense of wealth, originally booty, and to translate
va^inivati simply by rich, a meaning well adapted to every passage
where the word occurs.

® IJr^avatl, rich in wool, probably refers to the flocks of sheep
for which the lS[orth-West of India was famous. See Rig-veda
1.126,7.

® Silam^vati does not occur again in the Eig-veda. Muir trans-
lates, ^ rich in plants ; ' Zimmer, ‘ rich in water ; ' Ludwig takes it as a
proper name. S%awa states that silama is a plant which is made
into ropes. That the meaning of silamavati was forgotten at an
early time we see by the Atharva-veda III. 12, 2, substituting
sunrit^vati for silamavati, as preserved in the /S'ankhayana Grihya-
sutras, 3,3. I think silama means straw, from whatever plant it may
be taken, and this would be equally applicable to a sMa, a house,
a sthuwa, a post, and to the river Indus. It may have been, as
Ludwig conjectures, an old local name, and in that case it may
possibly account for the name given in later times to the Suleiman
range.

Madhuvridh is likewise a word which does not occur again in
the Eig-veda. Saya^ta explains it by nirguwd^i and similar plants,
but it is doubtful what plant is meant. Gu^c^a is the name of
a grass, madhuvridh therefore may have been a plant such as sugar-
cane, that yielded a sweet juice, the Upper Indus being famous for
sugar-cane; see Hiouen-thsang, II, p. 105. I take adhivaste with
Both in the sense ‘she dresses herself,’ as we might say ‘the river is
dressed in heather.’ Muir translates, ‘ she traverses a land yielding
sweetness Zimmer, ‘ she clothes herself in Madhuvridh Ludwig,
‘the Silamavati throws herself into the inereaser of the honey-
sweet dew.’ All this shows how little progress can be made in
Yedic scholarship by merely translating either words or verses,
without giving at the same time a full justification of the meaning
assigned to every single word.

168

LBCfTlTEE V.

The greatness of her chariot is praised as truly
great-T-that chariot which is irresistible, which has
its own glory, and abundant strengths'

This hymn does not sound perhaps very poetical,
in our sense of the word ; yet if you will try to realise
the thoughts of the poet who composed it, you will
perceive that it is not without some bold and powerful
conceptions.

Take the modem peasants, living in their villages
by the side of the Th^es, and you must admit that
he would be a remarkable man who could bring him-
self to look on the Thames as a kind of general,
riding at the head of many English rivers, and lead-
ing them on to a race or a battle. Yet it is easier
to travel in England, and to gain a commanding view
of the river-system of the country, than it was three
thousand years ago to travel over India, even over
that part of India which the poet of our hymn com-
mands. He takes in at one swoop three great river-
systems, or, as he calls them, three great armies of
rivers — those flowing from the North-West' into the
Indus, those joining it from the North-East, and,
in the distance, the Ganges and the Jumnah with
their tributaries. Look on the map and you will
see how well these three armies are determined ;
but our poet had no map — he had nothing but high
mountains and sharp eyes to carry out his trigono-
metrical survey. Now I call a man, who for the
first time could see those three marching armies of
rivers, a poet.

The next thing that strikes one in that hymn—
if hymn we must call it— is the fact that all these
rivers, large and small, have their own proper names.

^ See Petersburg Dictionary, s.v. virapsin.

THE LESSONS OE THE VEDA.

169

That shows a considerable advance in civilised life,
and it proves no small degree of coherence, or what
the French call solidarity, between the tribes who had
taken possession of Northern India. Most settlers
call the river on whose banks they settle ‘ the river.’
Of course there are many names for river. It may
be called the runner h the fertiliser, the roarer—or,
with a little poetical metaphor, the arrow, the horse,
the cow, the father, the mother, the watchman, the
child of the mountains. Many rivers had many names
in different parts of their course, and it was only
when communication between different settlements
became more frequent, and a fixed terminology was
felt to be a matter of necessity, that the rivers of a
country were properly baptised and registered. All
this had been gone through in India before our hymn
became possible.

And now we have to consider another, to my
mind most startling fact. We here have a number
of names of the rivers of India, as they were known
to one single poet, say about looo b.o. We then
hear nothing of India till we come to the days of
Alexander, and when we look at the names of the
Indian rivers, represented as well as they could be
by Alexander’s companions, mere strangers in India,
and by means of a strange language and a strange
alphabet, we recognise, without much difSculty,
nearly all of the old Vedic names.

In this respect the names of rivers have a great
advantage over the names of towns in India. What

^ ‘Among the Hottentots, the Kunene, Okarango and Orange
rivers, all have the name of Garib, i. e. the Bunner.’ Dr. Theoph.
Hahn, Cape Times, July ii, 1882.

170

LBCTUEE V.

we now call Billi or Delhi was in ancient times called
Indraprastha, in. later times Shahjahdnahdd. Oude
is Ayodhy 4 , but the old name of Saketa is forgotten.
The town of Paialiputra, known to the Greeks as
Palimhothm, is now called Patna’’’-.

Now I can assure you this persistency of the Vedic
river names was to my mind something so startling
that I often said to myself, This cannot be— there
must be something wrong here. I do not wonder so
much at the names of the Indus and the Ganges
being the same. The Indus was known to early
traders, whether by sea or by land. Skylax sailed
from the country of the Paktys, i. e. the Pushtus, as
the Afghans still call themselves, down to the mouth
of the Indus. That was under Darius Hystaspes
(521-486). Even before that time India and the
Indians were known by their name, which was derived
from Sindhu, the name of their frontier river. The
neighbouring tribes who spoke Iranic languages all
pronounced, like the Persian, the s as an A K Thus
Sindhu became Hindhu (Hidhu), and, as h’s were
dropped even at that early time, Hindhu became
Indu. Thus the river was called Indos, the people
Indoi by the Greeks, who first heard of India from
the Persians. *

Sindhu probably meant originally the divider,
keeper, and defender, from sidh, to keep oflp. It was
a masculine, before it became a feminine. No more
telling name could have been given to a broad river,
which guarded peaceful settlers both against the
inroads of hostile tribes and the attacks of wild

’ Cuaningham, ArcLseological Survey of India, vol. xii. p. 113.

“ Pliny, Hist. Nat. vi. 20, 71:' Indus incolis Sindus appellatus.’

THE LESSONS OE THE VEDA,

171

animals. A common name for the ancient settle-
ments of the Aryans in India was ‘ the Seven Rivers/

‘ Sapta SindhavaA.’ But though sind hu was used as
an appellative noun for river in general (c£ Eig-veda
VI. 19, 5 , samudrd ni slndhava^ yMam^n^li, ‘like
rivers longing for the sea’), it remained throughout
the whole history of India the name of its powerful
guardian river, the Indus.

In some passages of the Eig-veda it has been
pointed out that sindhu might better be translated
by 'sea,’ a change of meaning, if so it can be called,
fully explained by the geographical conditions of the
country. There are places where people could swim
across the Indus, there are others where no eye
could teE whether the boundless expanse of water
should be called river or sea. The two run into each
other, as every sailor knows, and. naturally the
meaning of sindhu, river, runs into the meaning of
sindhu, sea.

But besides the two great rivers, the Indus and
the Ganges,— in Sanskrit the Gahg 4 , literally the
Gl-o-go,— we have the smaller rivers, and many of
their names also agree with the names preserved to
us by the companions of Alexander

The YamunA ‘the Jumna, was known to Ptolemy
as to Pliny as Jomanes, to Arrian, some-

what corrupted, as Jbbares®.

The iSutudrl, or, as it was afterwards called, Saia-
dru, meaning ‘ running in a hundred streams, was

1 The history of these names has been treated by Professor Lassen,
in his ‘Indische Alterthnmskunde,’ and more lately by Professor
Kaegi, in his very careful essay, ‘Der Eig-veda,’ pp. 146, 147.

® Ptol. vii. I, 29.

® Arrian, ludica, viii. 5.

172

LECTUEE V.

known to Ptolemy as ZaSapSij? or ZdpaSpos ; Pliny
called it Sydrus ; and Megastkenes, too, was probably
acquainted with it as ZaSdpSt]?. In the Veda^ it
formed with the Vip 4 s the frontier of the Punjab,
and we hear of fierce battles fought at that time, it
may be on the same spot where in 1846 the battle
of the Sutledge was fought by Sir Hugh Gough and
Sir Henry Hardinge. It was probably on the Vip 4 s
(later VipM), a north-western tributary of the Sut-
ledge, that Alexander’s army turned back. The
river was then called Hyphasis ; Pliny calls it
Hypasis®, a very fair approximation to the Yedic
Vip^U, which means ‘ unfettered.’ Its modern name
is Bias or Bejah.

The next river on the west is the Vedic Parushni,
better known as Ir 4 vatl ®, which Strabo calls Hyar-
otis, while Arrian gives it a more Greek appearance
by calling it Hydraotes. It is the modern Eawi.
It was this river which the Ten Kings when attacking
the Tn’tsus under Sud 4 s tried to cross from the
west by cutting off its water. But their stratagem
failed, and they perished in the river (Eig-veda VII.
18,8-9).

We then come to the Asikni, which means ‘black.’

' Rig-veda III. 33, i ; ‘ From the lap of the mountains Vip&s and
^utudri rush forth with their water like two lusty mares neigh-
ing, freed from their tethers, like two bright mother-cows licking
(their calf).

‘Ordered by Indra and waiting his bidding you run toward the
sea like two charioteers; running together, as your waters rise, the
one goes into the other, you bright ones.’

Other classical names .are Hypanis, Bipasis, and Bihasis.
Yaska identifies it with the Argdkiyl
® Of. Rirukta IX. 26.

THE LESSONS OF THE VEDA.

173

That river had another name also, Xandrabh^ga,
which means ‘streak of the moon.’ The Greeks,
however, pronounced that name Sav^apo^ayo?, and
this had the unlucky meaning of ‘the devourer of
Alexander.’ Hesychius tells us that in order to avert
the bad omen Alexander changed the name of that
river into ' AkbctIvij?, which would mean ‘the Healer;’
but he does not tell, what the Veda tells us, that
this name ’ Affeo-A>?? was a Greek adaptation nf another
name of the same river, namely Asikni, which had
evidently supplied to Alexander the idea of calling
the Asikni ’A/ceo-Ajj?. It is the modern Chinlb.

Next to the Akesines we have the Vedic Vitast&,
the last of the rivers of the Punjdb, changed in Greek
into Hydaspes. It was to this river that Alexander
retired, before sending his fleet down the Indus and
leading his army back to Babylon. It is the modern
Behat or Jilam.

I could identify still more of these Vedic rivers,
such as, for instance, the Kubh4, the Greek Cophen,
the modern Kdbul river ^ ; but the names which I have

^ ‘ The first tributaries wbicb join the Indus before its lueeting
•with the Kubha or the Kabul river cannot be determined. All
travellers in these northern countries complain of the continual
changes in the names of the rivers, and we can hardly hope to
find traces of the Vedic names in existence there after the lapse of
three or four thousand years. The rivers intended may be the
Shauyook, Ladak, Abba Seen, and Burrindii, and one of the four
rivers, the Rasa, has assumed an almost fabulous character in the
Veda. After the Indus has joined the Kubha or the Kabul river,
two names occur, the Gromat! and Krumu, which I believe I was
the first to identify with the modern rivers the Gomai and Kurriim,
(Roth, Nirukta, Erlauterungen, p, 43, Anm.) The Gomai falls
into the Indus, between Dera Ismael Khan and Paharpore, and
although Elphinstone calls it a river only during the rainy season.

174

LECTURE V.

traced from the Veda to Alexander, and in many
cases from Alexander again to our own time, seem to
me sufficient to impress upon us the real and his-
torical character of the Veda. Suppose the Veda
were a forgery — suppose at least that it had been
put together after the time of Alexander — how could
we explain these names 1 They are names that have
mostly a meaning in Sanskrit, they are names corre-
sponding very closely to their Greek corruptions, as
pronounced and written down by people who did not
know Sanskrit. How is a forgery possible here ?

I selected this hymn for two reasons. First, because
it shows us the widest geographical horizon of the V edic
poets, confined by the snowy mountains in the North,
the Indus and the range of the Suleiman mountains
in the West, the Indus or the sea in the South, and
the valley of the Jumna and Ganges in the East.
Beyond that, the world, though open, was unknown
to the Vedic poets. Secondly, because the same
hymn gives us also a kind of historical background

Klaprotli (Foe-koue-M, p. 23) describes its upper course as far
more considerable, and adds: “Unpeu ^ Test de Sirmigba, le Gomal
traverse la cbaine de montagnes de Solimdn, passe devant Ragbzi,
et fertilise I0 pays babit 4 par les tribus de Dauletkbail et de
Gandelipour. II se dess^cbe au d 4 fil 4 de Pezou, et son lit ne se
remplit plus d'eaii que dans la saison des pluies ; alors seulement il
rejoint la droite de I’lndus, au gud-est du bourg de Paliarpour.”
The Kurrum falls into the Indus North of the Gomal, while, ac-
cording to the poet, we should expect it South. It might be urged
that poets are not bound by the same rules as geographers, as we
see, for instance, in the verse immediately preceding. But if it
should be taken as a serious objection, it will be better to give up
the Gomati than the Krumu, the latter being the larger of the two,
and we might then take Gomati, rich in cattle,’' as an adjective
belonging to Erumu,— From a review of General Cunhingham’s
‘ Ancient Geography of India/ in Nature, 1871, Sept. 14.

THE LESSONS OF THE VEDA.

175

to the Vedic age. These rivers, as we may see them
to-day, as they were seen by Alexander and his Mace-
donians, were seen also by the Vedic poets. Here
we have an historical continuity — almost living wit-
nesses, to tell us that the people whose songs have
been so strangely, aye, you may almost say, so mira-
culously preserved to us, were real people, lairds
with their clans, priests, or rather, servants of their
gods, shepherds with their flocks, dotted about on
the hills and valleys, with enclosures or palisades
here and there, with a few strongholds, too, in case
of need — living their short life on earth, as at that
time life might be lived by men, without much push-
ing and crowding and trampling on each other —
spring, summer, and winter leading them on from
year to year, and the sun in his rising and setting
lifting up their thoughts from their meadows and
groves which they loved, to a world in the East,
from which they had come, or to a world in the
West, to which they were gladly hastening on.
They had what I call religion, though it was very
simple, and hardly reduced as yet to the form
of a creed. ‘There is a Beyond,’ that was all
they felt and knew, though they tried, as well as
they could, to give names to that Beyond, and
thus to change religion into a religion. They had
not as yet a name for Grod— certainly not in our
sense of the word — or even a general name for the
gods ' but they invented name after name to enable
them to grasp and comprehend by some outward and
visible tokens powers whose presence they felt in
nature, though their true and full essence was to
them, as it is to us, invisible and incomprehensible.

VEDIC DEITIES.

LECTUEE VI.

The next important phenomenon of nature which
was represented in the Veda as a terrestrial deity
is Fire, in Sanskrit Agni, in Latin ignis. In the
worship which is paid to the Fire and in the
high praises bestowed on Agni we can clearly
perceive the traces of a period in the history
of man in which not only the most essential com-
forts of life, but life itself, depended on the know-
ledge of producing fire. To us fire has become so
familiar that we can hardly form an idea of what life
would be without it. But how did the ancient
dwellers on earth get command and possession of fire 1
The Vedic poets tell us that fire first came to them
from the sky, in the form of lightning, but that it
disappeared again, and that then Mitarisvan, a being
to a certain extent like Prometheus, brought it back
and confided it to the safe keeping of the clan of the
Bhngus (Phlegyas)^. In other poems we hear of the
mystery of fire being produced by rubbing pieces of
wood ; and here it is a curious fact that the name of
the wood thus used for rubbing is in Sanskrit Pra-
mantha, a ■word which, as Kuhn has shown, would in
Greek come very near to the name of Prometheus. The
possession of fire, whether hypreserving it as sacred on

^ Muir, iv. p. 209.

VEMC DEITIES.

177

the hearth, or by producing it at pleasure with the
fire-drill, represents an enormous step in early civifisa-
tion. It enabled people to cook their meat instead
of eating it raw ; it gave them the power of carrying
on their work by night; and in colder climates it
really preserved them from being frozen to death.
No wonder, therefore, that the fire should have been
praised and worshipped as the best and kindest of
gods, the only god who had come down from heaven
to live on earth, the friend of man, the messenger of
the gods, the mediator between gods and men, the
immortal among mortals. He, it is said, protects
the settlements of the Aryans, and frightens away
the black-skinned enemies.

Soon, however, fire was conceived by the Vedic
poets under the more general character of light and
warmth, and then the presence of Agni was perceived,
not only on the hearth and the altar, but in the Dawn,
in the Sun, and in the world beyond the Sun, while
at the same time his power was recognised as ripen-
ing, or as they called it, as cooking, the fruits of the
earth, and as supporting also the warmth and the
fife of the human body. From that point of view
Agni, like other powers, rose to the rank of a Supreme
G-od^. He is said to have stretched out heaven and
earth— naturally, because without his light heaven
and earth would have been invisible and undistin-
guishable. The next poet says that Agni held
heaven aloft by his light, that he kept the two
worlds asunder ; and in the end Agni is said to be
the progenitor and father of heaven and earth, and
the maker of all that flies, or walks, or stands, or
moves on earth.

178

LECTURE VI,

Here we have once more the same process before
our eyes. The human mind begins with being startled
by a single or repeated event, such as the lightning,
striking a tree and devouring a whole forest, or a
spark of fire breaking forth from wood being rubbed
against wood, whether in a forest, or in the wheel of
a carriage, or at last in a fire-drill, devised on purpose.
l yTan then begins to wonder at what to him is a
miracle, none the less so because it is a fact, a simple,
natural fact. He sees the efifects of a power, but he
can only guess at its cause, and if he is to speak of
it, he can only do so by speaking of it as an agent, or
as something like a human agent, and, if in some re-
spects not quite human, in others more than human
or super-human. Thus the concept of Fire grew, and
while it became more and more generalised, it also
became more sublime, more incomprehensible, more
divine. Without Agni, without fire, light, and warmth,
life would have been impossible. Hence he became
the author and giver of life, of the life of plants and
animals and of men ; and his favour having once been
implored for ‘light and life and all things,’ what
wonder that in the minds of some poets, and in the
traditions of this or that village community, he should
have been raised to the rank of a supreme ruler, a god
above all gods, their own true god !

We now proceed to consider the powers which the
ancient poets might have discovered in the air, in
the clouds, and, more particularly, in those meteoric
conflicts which by thunder, lightning, darkness,
storms, and showers of rain must have taught man
that very important lesson that he was not alone in
this world. Many philosophers, as you know, believe

VEDIC DEITIES.

179

that all religion arose from fear or terror, and that
■withont thnnder and lightning to teach us, we should
never have believed in any gods or god. This is a
one-sided and exaggerated view. Thunderstorms, no
doubt, had a large share in arousing feelings of awe
and terror, and in making man conscious of his weak-
ness and dependence. Even in the Veda Indra is
introduced as saying ; ‘Yes, when I send thunder and
lightning, then you believe in me.’ But what we
call religion would never have sprung from fear and
terror alone. Religion is irust, and that trust arose
in the beginning from the impressions made on the
mind and heart of man by the order and wisdom of
nature, and more particularly, by those regularly re-
curring events, the return of the sun, the revival of
the moon, the order of the seasons, the law of cause
and effect, gradually discovered in all things, and
traced back in the end to a cause of all causes, by
whatever name we choose to call it.

Still, the meteoric phenomena had, no doubt, their
important share in the production of ancient deities ;
and in the poems of the Vedic Eishis they naturally
occupy a very prominent place. If we were asked
who was the principal god of the Vedic period, we
should probably, judging from the remains of that
poetry which we possess, say it was Indra, the god
of the blue sky, the Indian Zeus, the gatherer of the
clouds, the giver of rain, the wielder of the thunder-
bolt, the conqueror of darkness and of all the powers
of darkness, the bringer of hglit, the source of fresh-
ness, vigour, and life, the ruler and lord of the whole
world. Indra is this, and much more in the Veda.
He is supreme in the hymns of many poets, and may
have been so in the prayers addressed to him by

•NT . 2: .

180

LECTUEE VI,

many of the ancient septs or village communities in
India. Compared with him the other gods are said
to be decrepit old men. Heaven, the old Heaven or
Dyaus, formerly the father of all the gods, nay the
father of Indra himself, bows before liim, and the
Earth trembles at his approach. Yet Indra never
commanded the permanent allegiance of all the other
gods, like Zeus and Jupiter; nay, we know from the
Veda itself that there were sceptics, even at that
early time, who denied that there was any such thing
as Indra b

By the side of Indra, and associated with him
in his battles, and sometimes hardly distinguish-
able from him, we find the representatives of the
wind, called V4ta or Y4yu, and the more terrible
Storm-gods, the Maruts, literally the Smashers.

When speaking of the Wind, a poet says ‘ Where
was he born % Whence did he spring \ the life of the
gods, the germ of the world ! That god moves about
where he listeth, his voices are heard, but he is not
to be seen.’

The Maruts are more terrible than V4ta, the wind.
They are clearly the representatives of such storms as
are known in India, when the air is darkened by dust
and clouds, when in a moment the trees are stripped
of their foliage, their branches shivered, their stems
snapped, when the earth seems to reel and the moun-
tains to shake, and the rivers are lashed into foam and
fury. Then the poet sees the Maruts approaching
with golden helmets, with spotted skins on their
shoulders, brandishing golden spears, whirling their
axes, shooting fiery arrows, and cracking their whips
amidst thunder and lightning. They are the comrades

* Hibbert Lectures, p. 307. ^ X. 168, 3, 4.

VEDIC DEITIES.

181

of Indra, sometimes, like Indra,tlie sons of Dyaus or the
sky, but also the sons of another terrible god, called
Rudra, or the Howler, a fighting god, to whom
many hymns are addressed. In him a new character
is evolved, that of a healer and saviour, — a very
natural transition in India, where nothing is so
powerful for dispelling miasmas, restoring health, and
imparting fresh vigour to man and beast, as a thunder-
storm, following after weeks of heat and drought.

All these and several others, such as Par^anya and
the Ribhus, are the gods of mid-air, the most active
and dramatic gods, ever present to the fancy of the
ancient poets, and in several eases the prototypes
of later heroes, celebrated in the epic poems of India.
In battles, more particularly, these fighting gods of
the sky were constantly invoked^. Indra is the
leader in battles, the protector of the bright Aryans,
the destroyer of the black aboriginal inhabitants of
, India. ‘He has thrown down fifty thousand black
fellows,’ the poet says, ‘and their strongholds crumbled
away like an old rag.’ Strange to say, Indra is
praised for having saved his people from their ene-
mies, much as Jehovah was praised by the Jewish
prophets. Thus we read in one hymn that when
Sudls, the pious king of the Tn'tsus, was pressed
hard in his battle with the ten kings, Indra changed
the flood into an easy ford, and thus saved Sud4s.

In another hymn we read ‘ Thou hast restrained
the great river for the sake of Turviti V4yya ; the
flood moved in obedience to thee, and thou madest
the rivers easy to cross.’ This is not very diflerent
from the Psalmist (Ixxviii. 13 ): ‘He divided the

^ See Kaegi, Eig-veda, p. 61.

“ Eig-veda II. 13, 12 ; IV. 19, 6.

182

LECTUEE VI.

sea, and caused them to pass through ; and he made
the waters to stand as an heap.’

And there are other passages which have reminded
some students of the Veda of Joshua’s battle h when
the sun stood still and the moon stayed, until the
people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.
For we read in the Veda also, as Professor Kaegi
has pointed out (l.c. p. 63), that ‘Indra lengthened
the days into the night,’ and that ‘the Sun unhar-
nessed its chariot in the middle of the day

In some of the hymns addressed to Indra his
original connection with the sky and the thunder-
storm seems quite forgotten. He has become a
spiritual god, the only king of all worlds and all
people who sees and hears everything ^ nay, who
inspires men with their best thoughts., No one is
equal to him, no one excels him.

The name of Indra is peculiar to India, and must
have been formed after the separation of the great
Aryan family had taken place, for we find it neither
in Greek, nor in Latin, nor in German. There are Vedic
gods, as I mentioned before, whose names must have
been framed before that separation, and which occur
therefore, though greatly modified in character, some-
times in Greek, sometimes in Latin, sometimes in the
Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonic dialects. Dyaus, for
instance, is the same word as Zeus or Ju-piter, Ushas
is Eos, Nakt^ is Nyx, Sfirya is Helios, Agni is ignis,
Bhaga is Baga in Old Persian, Bogil in Old Slavonic,
Varuna is IJranos,V^ta is Wotan, Va^ is vox, and
in the name of the Maruts, or the storm-gods, the
germs of the Italic god of war, Mars, have been dis-

‘ Joshuas. 13. ® Eig-vedalV. 30, 3; X. 138, 3.

“ L. c. VIII. 37, 3. * b. c. VIII. 78, 5.

VEDIC DEITIES.

183

covered. Besides these direct coincidences, some
indirect relations have been established between
Hermes and Sdrameya, Dionysos and Dyunisya,
Prometheus and pramantha, Orpheus and jBibhu,
Erinnys and Sara«yu, Pin and Pavana.

But wliile the name of Indra as the god of the
sky, also as the god of the thunderstorm, and the
giver of rain, is unknown among the Horth-wcstern
members of the Aryan family, the name of another
god who sometimes acts the part of Indra (IndraA
Paryanyitmi), but is much less prominent in the
Veda, I mean Par^anya, must have existed before
that of Indra, because two at least of the Aryan
languages have carried it, as we shall see, to Ger-
many, and to the very shores of the Baltic.

Sometimes this Paryanya stands in the place of D}'-
aus, the sky. Thus we read in the Atharva-veda, XII.
1,12^: ‘ The Earth is the mother, and I am the son of
the Earth. Paryanya is the father ; may he help us !'

In another place (XII. i, 42) the Earth, instead of
being the wife of Heaven or Dyaus, is called the wife
ofParyanya.

Now who or what is this Paryanya 1 There have
been long controversies about him^, as to whether
he is the same as Dyaus, Heaven, or the same as
Indra, the successor of Dyaus, whether he is the god
of the sky, of the cloud, or of the rain.

To me it seems that this very expression, god of
the sky, god of the cloud, is so entire an anachron-
ism that we could not even translate it into Vedic
Sanskrit without committing a solecism. It is true,

^ Muir, iv. p. 23*

® Ibid. p. 142. An excellent paper on Paryanya was published
by Biihler in 1862, ^ Orient und Occident,’ vol. i. p. 214.

184

LECTTJEE VI.

no doubt, we must use our modern ways of speaking
when we wish to represent the thoughts of the ancient
world ; but we cannot be too much on our guard
against accepting the dictionary representative of an
ancient word for its real counterpart. D e v a, no doubt,
means ‘gods’ and ‘god,’ and Par^anya means ‘cloud,’
but, no one could say in Sanskrit par^anyasya
devaZi, ‘the god of the cloud.’ The god, or the divine
or transcendental element, does not come from without,
to be added to the cloud or to the sky or to the earth,
but it springs from the cloud and the sky and the
earth, and is slowly elaborated into an independent
concept. As many words in ancient languages have
an undefined meaning, and lend themselves to various
purposes according to the various intentions of the
speakers, the names of the gods also share in this
elastic and plastic character of ancient speech. There
are passages where Par^anya means cloud, there are
passages where it means rain. There are passages
where Par^anya takes the place which elsewhere is
filled by Dyaus, the sky, or by Indra, the active god of
the atmosphere. This may seem very wrong and very
unscientific to the scientific mythologist. But it cannot
be helped. It is the nature of ancient thought and
ancient language to be unscientific, and we must
learn to master it as well as we can, instead of
finding fault with it, and complaining that our fore-
fathers did not reason exactly as we do.

There are passages in the Vedic hymns where Par-
^anya appears as a supreme god. He is called
father, like Dyaus, the sky. He is called asur a, the
living or life-giving god, a name peculiar to the oldest
and the greatest gods. One poet says ‘ He rules

’ Eig-vedaVII. loi, 6.

VEDIC DEITIES.

185

as god over the whole world ; all creatures rest in
him ; he is the life (4tm4) of all that moves and
rests/

Surely it is difficult to say more of a supreme god
than what is here said of Paryanya. Yet in other
hj^mns he is represented as performing his office,
namely that of sending rain upon the earth, under
the control of Mitra and Varuwa, who are then con-
sidered as the highest lords, the mightiest rulers of
heaven and earth h

There are other verses, again, where par^anya
occurs with hardly any traces of personality, but
simply as a name of cloud' or rain.

Thus we read^: ‘Even by day the Maruts (the
storm-gods) produce darkness with the cloud that
carries water, when they moisten the earth.’ Here
cloud is paryanya, and it is evidently used as an
appellative, and not as a proper name. The same
word occurs in the plural also, and we read of many
paryanyas or clouds vivifying the earth®.

When Devdpi prays for rain in favour of his brother,
he says ^ : ‘ 0 lord of my prayer (Brihaspati), whether
thou be Mitra or Varuwa or Phshan, come to my
sacrifice! Whether thou be together with the Adi-
tyas, the Yasus or the Maruts, let the cloud (par-
^anya) rain for /Santanu.’

And again; ‘Stir up the rainy cloud’ (paryanya).

In several places it makes no difference whether we
translate paryanya by cloud or by rain, for those who
pray for rain, pray for the cloud, and whatever may be
the benefits of the rain, they may nearly all be called

^ Big"Veda V. 63, 3-6.

2 L. c. I. 38, 9.

186

UBCTUBE VI.

the benefits of the cloud. There is a curious hymn,
for instance, addressed to the frogs who, at the be-
ginning of the rains, come forth from the dry ponds,
and embrace each other and chatter together, and
whom the poet compares to priests singing at a
sacrifice, a not very complimentary remark from a
poet who is himself supposed to have been a priest.
Their voice is said to have been revived by par^anya,
which we shall naturally translate ‘ by rain,’ though,
no doubt, the poet may have meant, for all we know,
either a cloud, or even the god Paryanya himself

I shall try to translate one of the hymns addressed
to Paryanya, when conceived as a god, or at least as so
much of a god as it was possible to be at that stage
in the intellectual growth of the human race^.

1. ‘ Invoke the strong god with these songs ! praise
Paryanya, worship him with veneration ! for he, the
roaring bull, scattering drops, gives seed-fruit to
plants.

2. ‘ He cuts the trees asunder, he kills evil spirits ;
the whole world trembles before his mighty weapon.
Even the guiltless flees before the powerful, when
Paryanya thundering strikes down the evil-doers.

3. ‘Like a charioteer, striking his horses with a
whip, he puts forth' his messengers of rain. From
afar arise the roarings of the lion, when Paryanya
makes the sky full of rain.

4. ‘The winds blow, the lightnings^ fly, plants
spring up, the sky pours. Food is produced for the

‘ Rig-vcdaV. 83. See Btihler, Orient und Gcoident, vol. i.
p. 214; Zimmei-, Altindisclies Leben, p. 43.

“ Both Biihler (Orient und Occident, vol. i. p. 224) and Zimmer
(Z. f.D. A. vii. p. 169) say that the lightning is represented as the
sou of Paryanya in Eig-veda VII. loi, i. This seems doubtful.

VEDIC DEIXIES.

187

whole world, when Par^anya blesses the earth with
his seed.

5 . ‘ 0 Par^anya, thou at whose work the earth
bows down, thou at whose work hoofed animals are
scattered, thou at whose work the plants assume all
forms, grant thou to us thy great protection !

6 . ‘ 0 Maruts, give us the rain of heaven, make
the streanas of the strong horse run down ! And come
thou hither with thy thunder, pouring out water,
for thou (0 Parpanya) art the living god, thou art
our father.

7 . ‘ Do thou roar, and thunder, and give fruitfulness !
Ply around us with thy chariot full of water! Draw
forth thy water-skin, when it has been opened and
turned downward, and let the high and the low
places become level !

8 . ‘ Draw up the large bucket, and pour it out ; let
the streams pour forth freely I Soak heaven and
earth with fatness ! and let there be a good draught
for the cows !

9 . / 0 Par^anya, when roaring and thundering
thou killest the evildoers, then everything rejoices,
whatever lives on earth.

10 . ‘Thou hast sent rain, stop now! Thou hast
made the deserts passable, thou hast made plants
grow for food, and thou hast obtained praise from
men.’

This is a Vedic hymn, and a very fair specimen of
what these ancient hymns are. There is nothing
very grand and poetical about them, and yet, I say,
take thousands and thousands of people living in our
villages, and depending on rain for their very life,
and not many of them will be able to compose such a
prayer for rain, even though three thousand years have

188

LECTURE VI.

passed over our heads since Par^anya was first in-
voked in India. Nor are these verses entirely without
poetical conceptions and descriptions. Whoever has
watched a real thunderstorm in a hot climate, will
recognise the truth of those quick sentences, ‘ the
winds blow, the lightnings fly, plants spring up, the
hoofed cattle are scattered.’ Nor is the idea without
a certain drastic reality, that Par^anya draws a bucket
of water from his well in heaven, and pours out skin
after skin (in which water was then carried) down
upon the earth.

There is even a moral sentiment perceptible in this
hymn. ‘ When the storms roar and the lightnings
flash and the rain pours down, even the guiltless
trembles, and evildoers are struck down.’ Here we
clearly see that the poet did not look upon the storm
simply as an outbreak of the violence of nature, but
that he had a presentiment of a higher will and
power which even the guiltless fears ; for who, he
seems to say, is entirely free from guilt 1

If now we ask again, Who is Par^anyal or What is
Par^anya ? we can answer that par^anya was meant
originally for the cloud, so far as it gives rain ; but
as soon as the idea of a giver arose, the visible cloud
became the outward appearance only, or the body of
that giver, and the giver himself was somewhere else,
we know not where. In some verses Par^anya seems
to step into the place of Hyaus, the sky, and Pn'thivl,
the earth, is his wife. In other places however, he
is the son of Dyaus or the sky, though no thought
is given in that early stage to the fact that thus
Par^anya might seem to be the husband’ of his

VEDIC DEITIES.

189

mother. We saw that even the idea of Indra being
the father of his own father did not startle the
ancient poets beyond an exclamation that it was a
very wonderful thing indeed.

Sometimes Par^anya does the work of Indra \ the
Jupiter Pluvius of the Veda; sometimes of V4yu,the
wind, sometimes of Soma, the giver of rain. Yet
with all this he is not Dyaus, nor Indra, nor the
Maruts, nor V4yu, nor Soma. He stands by himself,
a separate person, a separate god, as we should say —
nay, one of the oldest of all the Aryan gods.

His name, par^anya, is derived from a root pary,
which, like its parallel forms pars and parsh, must
(I think) have had the meaning of sprinkhng, iiTi-
gating, moistening. An interchange between final y,
s, and sh may, no doubt, seem unusual, but it is not
without parallel in Sanskrit. We have, for instance,
the roots pi%, pingere ; pish, to rub ; pis, to adorn
(as in pesas, ttow/Xo?, &c.) ; mr/y, to rub, mnsh, to
rub out, to forget ; mrzs, mulcere.

This very root mn^ forms its participle as mr«sh-]fa,
like ya^, ish^a, and vis, vishia; nay there are roots,
such as drub, which optionally take a final lingual or
guttural, such as dhrui and dhruk \

We may therefore compare par^ in par^anya with
such words as pnshata, pn’shati, speckled, drop of
water®; also parsu, cloud, pnsni, speckled, cloud,
earth ; and in Greek 7rpd^(<»), TrepKvos, etc. ^

^ Eig-veda YIII. 6, i.

^ See Max Mtiller, Sanskrit Grammar, § 174, lo,

® Cf. Gobh, Grihya S. Ill, 3, 15, vidyut — stanayitiiu — pnsliiteslm.
^ Up^valadatta, in bis commentary on tbe Ur^adi-sutras, iii. 103,
admits the same transition of sb into g in the verb pnsb, as the
etymon of paryanya.

190

LECTUEE VI.

If derived from par^, to sprinkle, Par^anya would
have meant originally ‘ he who irrigates or gives rain h’

When the different membei’s of the Aryan family
dispersed, they might all of them, Hindus as well as
Greeks and Celts, and Teutons and Slaves, have
carried that name for cloud with them. But you
know that it happened very often that out of the
common wealth of their ancient language, one and the
same word was preserved, as the case might be, not
by aU, but by only six, or five, or four, or three, or
two, or even by one only of the seven principal heirs ;
and yet, as we know that there was no historical
contact between them, after they had once parted
from each other, long before the beginning of what
we call history, the fact that two of the Aryan lan-
guages have preserved the same finished word with
the same finished meaning, is proof sufficient that
it belonged to the most ancient treasure of Aryan
thought.

Now there is no trace, at least no very clear trace,
of Paryanya, in Greek or Latin or Celtic, or even in
Teutonic. In Slavonic, too, we look in vain, till we
come to that almost forgotten side-branch called the
JDettic, comprising the spoken Lituanian and Lettish,
and the now extinct Old Prussian. Lituania is no
longer an independent state, but it was once, not
more than six centuries ago, a Grand Duchy, inde-
pendent both of Bussia and Poland. Its first Grand
Duke was Kingold, who ruled from 1235, and his
successors made successful conquests against the

^ For different etymologies, see BtiHer, Orient und Occident, i.
p. 214 ; Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, v. p. 140; Grassmann, in his
Dictionary to the Rig-veda, s.v. ; Zimmer, Zeitschrift fur Deutsches
Alterthum, Neue Folge, vii. p. 164.

VEDIC DEITIES.

191

Eussians. In 1368 these grand dukes became kings
of Poland, and in 1569 the two countries were united.
When Poland was divided between Eussia and Prussia,
part of Lituania fell to the former, part to the latter.
There are still about one million and a half of people
who speak Lituanian in Eussia and Prussia, while
Lettish is spoken by about one million in Curland
and Livonia.

The Lituanian language, even as it is now spoken
by the cornmon people, contains some extremely
primitive grammatical forms — in some cases almost
identical with Sanskrit. These forms are all the
more curious, because they are but few in number,
and the rest of the language has suffered much from
the wear and tear of centuries.

Now in that remote Lituanian language we find
that our old friend Par^anya has taken refuge.
There he lives to the present day, while even in
India he is almost forgotten, at least in the spoken
languages ; and there, in Lituania, not many cen-
turies back might be heard among a Christianised
or nearly Christianised people, prayers for rain, not
very different from that which I translated to you
from the Eig-veda. In Lituanian the god of thunder
was called PerMnas and the same word is still
used in the sense of thimder. In Old Prussian,
thunder was percunos, and in Lettish to the present
da,j perhons is thunder, god of thunder^.

' In order to identify Perkunas with par^ranya, we must go
another step backward, and look npon g or g, in the root parg, as a
weakening of an original k in park. This, however, is a frequent
phonetic process. See Biihler, in Benfey's Orient nnd Occident,
ii. p. '717.

® Lituanian perkun-kulke, thunder-bolt, perkuno gaids, storm.
See Voelkel, Die lettisclien Sprachreste, 1879, p. 23.

192

LECTURE VI.

It was, I believe, Grimm wbo for the first time
identified the Vedic Par^anya with the Old Slavonic
Perhn, the Polish Piorun, the Bohemian Peraun.
These words had formerly been derived hy Dobrowsky
and others from the root pern, I strike. Grimm
(Teutonic Mythology, Engl, transl., p. 171) showed
that the fuller forms Perkunas, Pehrkons, and Per-
kunos existed in Lituanian, Lettish, Old Prussian,
and that even the Mordvinians had adopted the
name Porguini as that of their thunder-god.

Simon Grunau, who finished his chronicle in 1521,
speaks of three gods, as worshipped by the Old Prus-
sians, Patollo, Patrimpo, and Perkuno, and he states
that Perkuno was invoked ‘ for storm’s sake, that they
might have rain and fair weather at the proper time,
and ’thunder and lightning should not injure them 0

The following Lituanian prayer has been preserved
to us by Lasitzki ^ :

‘ Check thyself, 0 Percuna, and do not send mis-
fortune on my field ! and I shall give thee this flitch.’

Among the neighbours of the Lets, the Esthonians,
who, though un- Aryan in language, have evidently
learnt much from their Aryan neighbours, the follow-
ing prayer was hea,rd®, addressed by an old peasant

^ ‘Perkuno, war der dritte Abgot und man in anruffie nmbs
gewitters willen, domit sie Eegen batten und sclion wetter zu
seiner Zeit, und in der Donner und biix kein scliaden tbett/ Cf,

‘ Gottesicles bei den alten Preussen/ Berlin, 1870, p. 23. The triad
of the gods is called Triburti, Tryboze; 1 . c. p. 29.

Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, p. 175 ; and Lasitzki (Lasicius)
Joannes, De Eussorum, Moacovitarum et Tartarorum religione, .
sacrificiis, nuptiaruni et funerum ritu, Spirm Nemetum, 1582 ; idem,
De Diis Samagitarum.

Grimm, l.c. p. 176, quoting from Join Gutslaff, Kurzer Bericht
und TJnterricht von der falsch heilig genandten b'ache in Liefland
Wohliauda, Dorpat, 1644, pp. 362-364.

VEDIC DEITIES,

193

to their god PicJcer or Pichen, the god of thunder and
rain, as late as the seventeenth century ^ :

‘ Dear Thunder (woda Picker), we offer to thee an
ox that has two horns and four cloven hoofs; we
would pray thee for our ploughing and sowing, that
our straw he copper-red, our grain golden-yellow.
Push elsewhere all the thick black clouds, over
great fens, high forests, and wildernesses. But unto
us, ploughers and sowers, give a fruitful season and
sweet rain. Holy Thunder (poha Picken), guard our
seed-field, that it hear good straw below, good ears
above, and good grain within

Now, I say again, I do not wish you to admire
this primitive poetry, primitive, whether it is repeated
in the Esthonian fens in the seventeenth century of
our era, or sung in the valley of the Indus in the
seventeenth century before our era. Let assthetic
critics say what they like about these uncouth j)oems.
I only ask you. Is it not worth a great many poems,
to have established this fact, that the same god
Paryanya, the god of clouds and thunder and light-
ning and rain, who was invoked in India a thousand
years before India was discovered by Alexander,
should have been remembered and believed in by
Lituanian peasants on the frontier between East
Prussia and Russia, not more than two hundred
years ago, and should have retained its old name
Parp'anya, which in Sanskritmeant ‘showering,’ under
the form of PerJcuna, which in Lituanian is a name
and a name only, without any etymological meaning at
all; nay, should live on, as some scholars assure us,

^ In modern Esthonian Pittne, the Finnish Pitcainen (?).

“ On foreign influences in Esthonian stories, see Ehstnische
Marchen, von T. Kreutzwald, 1869, Torwort (by Schiefner), p.iv.

0

LEOTUEE VI.

194 ;

in an abbreviated form in most Slavonic dialects,
namely, in Old Slavonic as Perun, in Polish as Piorun,
in Bohemian as Peraun, all meaning thunder or
thunder-storm M

Such facts strike me as if we saw the blood
suddenly beginning to flow again through the veins
of old mummies ; or as if the Egyptian statues of
black granite were suddenly to begin to speak again.
Touched by the rays of modern science the old words —
call them mummies or statues — begin indeed to live
again, the old names of gods and heroes begin indeed
to speak again. All that is old becomes new, all that
is new becomes old, and that one word, Paryanya,
seems, like a charm, to open before our eyes the cave
or cottage in which the fathers of the Aryan race, our
own fathers, — ^^whether we hve on the Baltic or on the
Indian Ocean, — are seen gathered together, taking
refuge from the buckets of Paryanya, and saying :

‘ Stop now, Paryanya ; thou hast sent rain ; thou hast
made the deserts passable, and hast made the plants
to grow ; and thou hast obtained praise from man.’

■ We have still to consider the third class of gods, in
addition to the gods of the earth and the eky, namely
the gods of the highest heaven, more serene in their
character than the active and fighting gods of the air
and the clouds, and more remote from the eyes of
man, and therefore more mysterious in the exercise
of their power than the gods of the earth or the air.

The principal deity is here no doubt the bright
sky itself, the old Byaus, worshipped as we know
by the Aryans before they broke up into separate
people and languages, and surviving in Greece as

VEDIC DEITIES.

195

Zeus, in Italy as Jupiter, Heaven-fatlier, and among
the Teutonic tribes as T'^r and Tiu. In the Veda we
saw him chiefly invoked in connection with the earth,
as Dy4v4-pHthivi, Heaven and Earth. He is invoked
by himself also, but he is a vanishing god, and his
place is taken in most of the Vedic poems by the
younger and more active god, Indra.

Another representative of the highest heaven, as
covering, embracing, and shielding all things, is Var-
una, a name derived from the root var, to cover, and
identical with the Greek Ouranos. This god is one
of the most interesting creations of the Hindu mind,
because though we can still perceive the physical
background from which he rises, the vast, starry,
brilliant expanse above, his features, more than those
of any of the Vedic gods, have become completely
transfigured, and he stands before us as a god who
watches over the world, punishes the evil-doer, and
even forgives the sins of those who implore his pardon.

I shall read you one of the hymns addressed to
him ^ ;

‘ Let us be blessed in thy service, 0 Varum, for
we always thirds; of thee and praise thee, greeting
thee day by day, like the fires lighted on the altar,
at the approach of the rich dawns.’ 2.

‘0 Varum, our guide, let us stand in thy keeping,
thou who art rich in heroes and praised far and
wide ! And you, unconquered sons of Aditi, deign
to accept us as your friends, 0 gods!’ 3.

‘Aditya, the ruler, sent forth these rivers ; they
follow the law of Varum. They tire not, they cease
not ; like birds they fly quickly everywhere.’ 4.

^ Eig-veda II. 28.

0 2

196

LECTUBB VI.

‘Take from me my sin, like a fetter, and we skall
increase, 0 Varuiia, the spring of thy law. Let not y
the thread be cut while I weave my song ! Let not
the form of the workman break before the time [ ’ 5 .

‘Take far away from me this terror, 0 Varuwa!
Thou, 0 righteous king, have mercy on me! Like
as a rope from a calf, remove from me my sin;
for away from thee I am not master even of the
twinkling of an eye.’ 6.

‘ Do not strike us, Varu^^a, with weapons wliich at
thy will hurt the evil-doer. Let us not go where the i
light has vanished! Scatter our enemies, that we
may live.’ 7 .

‘ We did formerly, 0 Varuwa, and do now, and
shall in future also, sing praises to thee, 0 mighty
one ! For on thee, unconquerable hero, rest all
statutes, immovable, as if established on a rock.’ 8 .

‘ Move far away from me all self-committed guilt,
and may I not, 0 king, suffer for what others have
committed! Many dawns have not yet dawned; #
grant us to live in them, 0 Varuwa.’ 9 .

You may have observed that in several verses of
this hymn Varuwa was called Aditya, or son of Aditi.

Now Aditi means infinitude, from diia, bound, and a,
not, that is, not bound, not limited, absolute, infinite.

Aditi itself is now and then invoked in the Yeda, as
the Beyond, as what is beyond the earth and the
sky, and the sun and the dawn — a most surprising
conception in that early period of religious thought.

More frequently, however, than Aditi, we meet with
the Adityas, literally the sons of Aditi, or the gods
beyond the visible earth and sky, — in one sense, the ^
infinite gods. One of them is Varuna, others Mitra
and Aryaman (Bhaga, Daksha, Amsa), most of them

VEDIC DEITIES,

197

abstract names, though pointing to heaven and the
solar light of heaven as their first, though almost
forgotten source.

When Mitra and Varuna are invoked together, we
can still perceive dimly that they were meant
originally for day and night, light and darkness.
But in their more personal and so to say dramatic
aspect, day and night appear in the Vedic mythology
as the two Asvins, the two horsemen.

Aditi, too, the infinite, still shows a few traces of
her being originally connected with the boundless
Dawn; but again, in her more personal and dramatic
character, the Dawn is praised by the Vedic poets as
Ushas, the Greek Eos, the beautiful maid of the
morning, loved by the Asvins, loved by the sun, but
vanishing before him at the very moment when he
tries to embrace her with his golden rays. The sun
himself, whom we saw reflected several times before
in some of the divine personifications of the air and
the sky and even of the earth, appears once more in
his fuU. personality, as the sun of the sky, under the
names of Sfirya (Helios), SavitW, Phshan, and Vishnu,
and many more.

You see from all this how great a mistake it
would be to attempt to reduce the whole of Aryan
mythology to solar concepts, and to solar concepts
only We have seen how largely the earth, the air,
and the sky have each contributed their share to the
earhest religious and mythological treasury of the
Vedic Aryans. Nevertheless, the Sun occupied in
that ancient collection of Aryan thought, which we
call Mythology, the same central and commanding
position which, under different names, it stiU holds
in our own thoughts.

198

LECTUEE VI.

Wliat we call the Morning, the ancient Aryans called
the Sun or the Dawn; ‘and there is no solemnity
so deep to a rightly thinking creature as that of
the Dawn.’ (These are not my words, hut the words
of one of our greatest poets, one of the truest
worshippers of Nature — John Euskin.) What we
call Noon, and Evening, and Night, what we call
Spring and Winter, what we call Year, and Time,
and Life, and Eternity — all this the ancient Aryans
called 8un. And yet wise people wonder and say,
how curious that the ancient Aryans should have
had so many solar myths. Why, every time we
say ‘Good Morning,’ we commit a solar myth. Every
poet who sings about ‘the May driving the Winter
from the field again’ commits a solar myth. Every
‘ Christmas Number ’ of our newspapers — ringing out
the old year and ringing in the new — is brimfull of
solar myths. Be not afraid of solar myths, but when-
ever in ancient mythology you meet with a name
that, according to the strictest phonetic rules (for
this is a sine qua non), can be traced back to a
word meaning sun, or dawn, or morning, or night,
or sprmg or winter, accept it for what it was meant
to be, and do not be greatly surprised, if a story told
of a solar eponymos was originally a solar my th.

No one has more strongly protested against the ex-
travagances of Comparative Mythologists in changing
everything into solar legends, than I have; but if
I read some of the arguments brought forward against
this new science, I confess they remind me of nothing
so much as of the arguments brought forward, centuries
ago, against the existence of Antipodes ! People then
appealed to what is called Common Sense, which
ought to teach everybody that. Antipodes could not

YSBIC DEITIES.

199

possibly exist, because they would tumble off. The
best answer that astronomers could give, was, ‘ Go
and see.’ And I can give no better answer to those
learned sceptics who try to ridicule the Science of
Comparative Mythology—' Go and see !’ that is, go
and read the Veda, and before you have finished the
first Mandala, I can promise you, you will no longer
shake your wise heads at solar myths, whether in
India, or in Greece, or in Italy, or even in England,
where we see so little of the sun, and talk all the
more about the weather — that is, about a solar myth.

We have thus seen from the hymns and prayers
preserved to us in the Eig-veda, how a large number
of so-called Devas, bright and sunny beings, or gods,
were called- into existence, how the whole world was
peopled with them, and every act of nature, whether
on the earth or in the air or in the highest heaven,
ascribed to their agency. When we say, it thunders,
they said Indra thunders ; when we say, it rains, they
said Paryanya pours out his buckets ; when we say,
it dawns, they said the beautiful Tishas appears like
a dancer, displaying her splendour ; when we say,
it grows dark, they said Shrya unharnesses his steeds.
The whole of nature was alive to the poets of the
Veda, the presence of the gods was felt everywhere,
and in that sentiment of the presence of the gods
there was a germ of religious morality, sufficiently
strong, it would seem, to restrain people from com-
mitting as it were before the eyes of their gods what
they were ashamed to commit before the eyes of men.
When speaking of Varum, the old god of the sky,
one poet says^;

'Varum, the great lord of these worlds, sees as

^ Atharra-veda IV. i6.

200

LECTUEB VI.

if he -were near. If a man stands or walks or hides,
if he goes to lie down or to get np, what two people
sitting together whisper to each other, King Varuna
knows it, he is there as the third \ This earth, too,
belongs to Yaruwa, the King, and this wide sky with
its ends far apart. The two seas (the sky and the
ocean) are Varuna’s loins ; he is also contained in
this small drop of water. He who should flee far
beyond the sky, even he would not be rid of Varuna,
the King ^ His spies proceed from heaven towards
this world; with thousand eyes they overlook this
earth. King Varuwa sees all this, what is between
heaven and earth, and what is beyond. He has
counted the twinklings of the eyes of men. As a
player throws doAvn the dice, he settles aU things
(irrevocably). May all thy fatal snares which stand
spread out seven by seven and threefold, catch the
man who tells a lie, may they pass by him who speaks
the truth.’

You see this is as beautiful, and in some respects
as true, as anything in the Psalms. And yet we
know that there never was such a Deva, or god, or
such a thing as Varuna. We know it is a mere
name, meaning originally ‘ covering or all-embracing,’
which was applied to the visible starry sky, and
afterwards, by a process perfectly intelligible, de-
veloped into the name of a Being, endowed with
human and superhuman qualities.

* Psalm cxxxix. I, 2 , ‘ 0 Lord, thou hast searched me and known
me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou under-
standest my thought afar off.’

“ Psalm cxxxix. 9, ‘If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell
in the uttermost parts of the sea j even there shall thy hand lead me,
and thy right hand shall hold me.’

VEDIC DEITIES.

201

And what applies to Varuna applies to all the
other gods of the Veda and the Vedic religion, whether
three in number, or thirty-three, or, as one poet said,
‘ three thousand three hundred and thirty- nine gods
They are all but names, quite as much as Jupiter
and Apollo and Minerva ; in fact, quite as much as
all the gods of every religion who are called by such
appellative titles.

Possibly, if any one had said this during the Vedic
age in India, or even during the Periklean age in
Greece, he would have been called, like Sokrates, a
blasphemer or an atheist. And yet nothing can be
clearer or truer, and we shall see that some of the
poets of the Veda too, and, still more, the later Vedtlntic
philosopher, had a clear insight that it was so.

Only let us be careful in the use of that phrase
‘it is a mere name.’ No name is a mere name.
Every name was originally meant for something ;
only it often failed to express what it was meant to
express, and then became a weak or an empty name,
or what we then call ‘ a mere name.’ So it was with
these names of the Vedic gods. They were all meant
to express the Beyond, the Invisible behind the
Visible, the Infinite within the Finite, the Super-
natural above the Natural, the Divine, omnipresent,
and omnipotent. They failed in expressing what, by
its very nature, must always remain inexpressible.
But that Inexpressible itself remained, and in spite of
aU these failures, it never succumbed, or vanished from
the mind of the ancient thinkers and poets, but
always called for new and better names, nay calls for
them even now, and will call for them to the very
end of man’s existence upon earth.

^ Eig-veda III. 9, 9 ; X. ga, 6 .

YEDA AND VEDANTA.

LECTUEE VII.

I DO not wonder that I should have been asked by
some of my hearers to devote part of my last lecture
to answering the question, how the Vedic literature
could have been composed and preserved, if writing
was unknown in India before 500 B. c., while the
hymns of the Eig-veda are said to date from 1 500 E.o.
Classical scholars naturally ask what is the date of
our oldest MSS. of the Eig-veda, and what is the
evidence on which so high an antiquity is assigned
to its contents. I shall try to answer this question
as well as I can, and I shall begin with a humble
confession that the oldest MSS. of the Eig-veda,
known to us at present, date not from 1500 B.c. but
from about 1500 A. D.

We have therefore a gap of three thousand years,
which it will require a strong arch of argument to
bridge over.

But that is not aU.

You may know how, in the beginning of this cen-
tury, when the age of the Homeric poems was dis-
cussed, a German scholar, Frederick August Wolf,
asked two momentous questions : —

1. At what time did the Greeks first become
acquainted with the alphabet and use it for inscrip-

VEDA AND VEDInTA.

203

tions on public monuments, coins, shields, and for
contracts, both public and private * 1

2 . At what time did the Greeks first think of
using writing for literary purposes, and what mate-
rials did they employ for that purpose ?

These two questions and the answers they elicited
threw quite a new light on the nebulous periods of
Greek literature. A fact more firmly established
than any other in the ancient history of Greece is
that the lonians learnt the alphabet from the
Phenicians. The lonians always called their letters
Phenician letters % and the very name of Alphabet
was a Phenician word. We can well understand
that the Phenicians should have taught the lonians
in Asia Minor a knowledge of the alphabet, partly
for commercial purposes, i.e. for making contracts,
partly for enabling them to use those useful little
sheets, called Periplus, or Circumnavigations, which
at that time were as precious to sailors as maps
were to the adventurous seamen of the middle ages.
But from that to a written literature, in our sense
of the word, there is still a wide step. It is well
known that the Germans, particularly in the North,
had their Eunes for inscriptions on tombs, goblets,
public monuments, but not for literary purposes®.
Even if a few lonians at Miletus and other centres
of political and commercial life acquired the art of

^ On tlie eaiij use of letters for public inscriptions, see Hayman,
Journal of Hiilology, 1879, pp. 141, 14 2, 150 ; Hicks, Manual of
Greek Historical Inscriptions, pp. i seqq.

2 Herod, (y. 59) says: ‘I saw Phenician letters on certain
tripods in a temple of the Ismenian Apollo at Thebes in Bceotia,
the most of them like the Ionian lettei’s.^

f Munch, Die ISTordisch Germanischen Vdlker, p. 240.

204

LECTURE VII.

writing, where could they find writing materials 1 and,
still mere important, where could they find readers 1
The Ionians,when they began to write, had to be satis-
fied wrth a hide or pieces of leather, which they called
di^hthera, and until that was brought to the perfection
of vellum or parchment, the occupation of an author
cannot have been very agreeable I

So far as w'e know at present the lonians began to
write about the middle of the sixth century b. c. ; and,
whatever may have been said to the contrary. Wolf’s
dictum stills holds good that with them the beginning
of a written literature was the same as the beginning
of prose writing.

Writing at that time was an effort, and such an
effort was made for some great purpose only. Hence
the first written skins were what we should call
Murray’s Handbooks, called Feriegesis or Feriodos,
or, if treating of sea-voyages, Feidplus, that is, guide-
books, books to lead travellers round a country
or round a town. Connected with these itineraries
were the accounts , of the foundations of cities, the
Ktisis. Such books existed in Asia Minor during
the sixth and fifth centuries, and their writers were
called by a general term, LogograpM, ov Xoyioi or
Xoyoiroioi% as opposed to doiSoL, the poets. They
were the forerunners of the Greek historians, and
Herodotus (443 B.C.), the so-called father of history,
made frequent use of their works.

^ Herod, (v. 58) says : ‘ The lonians from of old call / 3 o/ 3 Xos SKpSepm,
because once, in default of the former, they used to employ the
latter. And even down to my own time, many of the barbarians
write on such diphtherse.’

Hekatmos and Kadmos of Miletos (520 b.c.), Charon of
Lampsakos (504 b.c.), Xanthos the Lydian (463 b.c.), Pherekydes
of Lcros (480 B.C.), Hellanikos of Mitylene (430 b.c), &c.

VEDA AND VEDAnTA.

205

The whole of this incipient literary activity be-
longed to Asia Minor. From ‘ Guides through towns
and countries,’ literature seems to have spread at an
early time to Guides through life, or philosophical
dicta, such as are ascribed to Anaximander the
Ionian (610-547 b.cA), and Pherehydes the Syrian
(540 B.C.). These names carry us into the broad day-
light of history, for Anaximander was the teacher of
Anaximenes, Anaximenes of Anaxagoras, and Anax-
agoras of Perikles. At that time writing was a re-
cognised art, and its cultivation had been rendered
possible chiefly through trade with Egypt and the
importation of papyros. In the time of ^schylos
(500 B.c.) the idea of writing had become so familiar
that he could use it again and again in poetical meta-
phors and there seems little reason why we should
doubt that both Peisistratos (528 B.c.) and Polykrates
of Samos (523 B.O.) were among the first collectors of
Greek manuscripts.

In this manner the simple questions asked by Wolf
helped to reduce the history of ancient Greek litera-
ture to some kind of order, particularly with reference
to its first beginnings.

It would therefore seem but reasonable that the
two first questions to be asked by the students of
Sanskrit literature should have been : —

1. At what time did the people of India become
acquainted with an alphabet 1

2. At wdat time did they first use such alphabet
for literary purposes 1

Curiously enough, however, these questions re-
mained in abeyance for a long time, and, as a

^ Lewis, Astronomy, p. 92,

^ See Hajman, Journal of Philology, 1879, p. 139.

206

LECTUEE VII.

consequence, it was impossible to introduce even the
first elements of order into the chaos of ancient
Sanskrit literature h

I can here state a few facts only. There are no
inscriptions to be found anywhere in India before the
middle of the third century B. c. These inscriptions
are Buddhist, put up during the reign of Asoka, the
grandson of ATandragupta, who was the contemporary
of Seleucus, and at whose court in Patalibothra Me-
gasthenes lived as ambassador of Seleucus. Here, as
you see, we are on historical ground. In fact, there
is little doubt that Asoka, the king who put up these
inscriptions in several parts of his vast kingdom,
reigned from 259-222 B.c.

These inscriptions are written in two alphabets—
one written from right to left, and clearly derived
from an Aramaean, that is, a Semitic alphabet ; the
other written from left to right, and clearly an adap-
tation, and an artificial or systematic adaptation, of a
Semitic alphabet to the requirements of an Indian
language. That second alphabet became the source
of all Indian alphabets, and of many alphabets carried
chiefly by Buddhist teachers far beyond the limits of
India, though it is possible that the earliest Tamil
alphabet may have been directly derived firom the
same Semitic source which supplied both the deay
trorsum and the dnistrorsum alphabets of India.

Here then we have the first fact, viz. that writing,
even for monumental purposes, was unknown in
India before the third century B.C.

But writing for commercial purposes was known

^ See M. M., History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, pp. 497
seqq , * On the Introduction of Writing in India.’

VEDA AND VEdAnTA.

207

in India before that time. Megastlienes was no
doubt quite right when he said that the Indians did
not know letters h that their laws were not written,
and that they administered justice from memory.
But Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander the Great,
who sailed down the Indus (325 B. c.),and was therefore
brought in contact with the merchants frequenting
the maritime stations of India, was probably equally
ria-ht in declaring that ‘ the Indians wrote letters on
cotton that had been well beaten together.’ These were
no doubt commercial documents, contracts, it may be,
with Phenician or Egyptian captains, and they would
prove nothing as to the existence in India at that
time of what we mean by a written literature. In
fact, Nearchus himself affirms what Megastlienes said
after him, namely that ‘ the laws of the sophists in
India were not written.’ If, at the same time, the
Greek travellers in India speak of mile-stones, and
of cattle marked by the Indians with various signs
and also with numbers, aU this would perfectly agree
with what we know from other sources, that though
the art of writing may have reached India before
the time of Alexander’s conquest, its employment
for literary purposes cannot date from a much earlier
time.

Here then we are brought face to face with a most
startling fact. Writing was unknown in India before
the fourth century before Christ, and yet we are
asked to believe that the Vedic literature in its three
well-defined periods, the Mantra, Br 4 hmawa, and
Shtra periods, goes back to at least a thousand years
before our era.

^ M. M., History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 515.

208 LECTURE Vir.

Now the Eig-veda abne, which contains a collec-
tion of ten books of hymns addressed to various
deities, consists of 1017 (1028) poems, 10,580 verses,
and about 153,826 words b How were these poems
composed— for they are composed in very perfect
metre— and how, after having been composed, were
they handed down from 1500 before Christ to 1500
after Christ, the time to which most of our best
Sanskrit MSS. belong 1

Entirely hy memory. This may sound startling,
but— what will sound still more startling, and yet
is a fact that can easily be ascertained by anybody
who doubts it— at the present moment, if every
MS. of the Eig-veda were lost, we should be able
to recover the whole of it — from the memory of the
5rotriyas in India. These native students learn the
Yeda by heart, and they learn it from the mouth of
their Gimu, never from a MS., still less from my
printed edition,— and after a time they teach it again
to their pupils.

I have had such students in my room at Oxford,
who not only could repeat these hymns, but who
repeated them with the proper accents (for the Vedic
Sanskrit has accents like Greek), nay who, when
looking through my printed edition of the Eig-veda,
could point out a misprint without the slightest
hesitation.

I can tell you more. There are hardly any various
readings in our MSS. of the Eig-veda, but various
schools in India have their own readings of certain
passages, and they hand down those readings with
great care. So, instead of collating MSS., as we do
in Greek and Latin, I have asked some friends of

* M. M., Hibbert Lectures, p. 153.

VEDA AND VEdInTA.

209

mine to collate those Vedio students, who cany their
own Eig-veda in their memory, and to let me have
the various readings from these living authorities.

Here then we are not dealing with theories, but
with facts, which anybody may verify. The whole of
the Eig-veda, and a great deal more, still exists at
the present moment in the oral tradition of a number
of scholars who, if they liked, could write down every
letter, and every accent, exactly as we find them in
our old MSS.

Of course, this learning by heart is carried on
under a strict discipline ; it is, in fact, considered as
a sacred duty. A native friend of mine, himself a
very distinguished Vedic scholar, tells me that a boy,
who is to be brought up as a student of the Eig-
veda, has to spend about eight years in the house
of his teacher. He has to learn ten books : first,
the hymns of the Eig-veda ; then a prose treatise
on sacrifices, called the Br^hmana; then the so-
called Forest-hook or Arawyaka ; then the rules on
domestic ceremonies ; and lastly, six treatises on pro-
nunciation, grammar, etymology, metre, astronomy,
and ceremonial.

These ten books it has been calculated contain
nearly 30,000 lines, each line reckoned as thirty-two
syUahles.

A pupil studies every day, during the eight years
of his theological apprenticeship, except on the holi-
days, which are called ‘ non-reading days.’ There
being 360 days in a lunar year, the eight years would
give him 2880 days. Deduct from this 384 holidays,
and you get 2496 working days during the eight
years. If you divide the number of lines, 30,000, by
the number of working days, you get about twelve

210

JiECrUKE VII.

lines to be leamt each day, though much time is
taken up, in addition, for practising and rehearsing
what has been leamt before.

Now this is the state of things at present, though
I doubt whether it will last much longer, and I
always impress on my friends in India, and therefore
impress on those also who will soon be settled as
Civil Servants in India, the duty of trying to learn
all that can still be learnt from those living libra-
ries. Much ancient Sanskrit lore will be lost for
ever when that race of fifrotriyas becomes extinct.

But now let us look back. About a thousand years
ago a Chinese, of the name of 1 -tsing, a Buddhist,
went to India to learn Sanskrit, in order to be able
to translate some of the sacred books of his own
religion, which were originally written in Sanskrit,
into Chinese. He left China in 671, arrived at
T^ralipti in India in 673, and went to the great
College and Monastery of NManda, where he studied
Sanskrit. He returned to China in 695, and died
in 703^

In one qf his works which we still possess in
Chinese, he gives an account of what he saw in India,
not only among his own co-religionists, the Buddhists,
but likewise among the Brahmans®.

Of the Buddhist priests he says that after they
have learnt to recite the five and the ten precepts,
they are taught the 400 hymns of M^trifeta, and
afterward the 150 hymns of the same poet. When
they are able to recite these, they begin the study of

' See my article on. the date of the in the Indian Anti-

quary, 1880, p. 305.

“ The translation of the most important passages in I-tsing’s
work was made for me by one of my Japanese pupils, K. Kasawara.

21 i

VEDA AND VEDANTA,

the Sutras of their Sacred Canon. They also learn
by heart the 6 r 4 takamM 4 h which gives an account of
Buddha in former states of existence. Speaking of
what he calls the islands of the Southern Sea, which
he visited after leaving India, I-tsing says: ‘There
are more than ten islands in the South Sea. There
both priests and laymen recite the 6 ^ 4 takam 41 l, as
they recite the hymns mentioned before ; but it has
not yet been translated into Chinese.’

One of these stories, he proceeds to say, was versi-
fied by a king (Z'i6-zhih) and set to music, and was
performed before the public with a band and dancing
— evidently a Buddhist mystery play.

I-tsing then gives a short account of the system of
education. Children, he says, learn the forty-nine
letters and the 10,000 compound letters when they
are six years old, and generally finish them in half a
year. This corresponds to about 300 verses, each
sloka of thirty-two syllables. It was originally
taught by Mahesvara. At eight years, children begin
to learn the grammar of P 4 «ini, and know it after
about eight months. It consists of 1000 slokas,
called Sfitras.

Then follows the list of roots (dh^tu) and the three
appendices (khila), consisting again of 1000 slokas.
Boys begin the three appendices when they are ten
years old, and finish them in three years.

When they have reached the age of fifteen, they
begin to study a commentary on the grammar (Sfitra)
and spend five years on learning it. And here I-tsing
gives the following advice to his countrymen, many

^ See Bunpu Nanjio's Catalogue of the Chinese TripiJaka, p. 37a,
•where Aryasilra, who must have lived before 434 A.D., is mentioned
as the author of the G*atakam^A

212

LECTUEE vn.

of whom came to India to learn Sanskrit, but seem
to have learnt it very imperfectly. ‘If men of China,’
he writes, ‘go to India, wishing to study there, they
should first of all learn these grammatical works, and
then only other subjects ; if not, they wiU merely
waste their labour. These works should he learnt
by heart. But this is suited for men of high quality
only. . . . They should study hard day and night,
without letting a moment pass for idle repose. They
should be like Confucius, through whose hard study
the binding of his Yih-king was three times cut
asunder, being worn away ; and like Sui-shih, who
used to read a book repeatedly one hundred times.’
Then follows a remark, more intelligible in Chinese
than in English : ‘ The hairs of a bull are counted by
thousands, the horn of a unicorn is only one.’

I-tsing then speaks of the high degree of perfec-
tion to which the memory of these students attained,
•both among Buddhists and heretics. ‘ Such men,’ he
says, ‘could commit to memory the contents of two
volumes learning them only once.’

And then turning to the heretics, or what we
should call the orthodox Brahmans, he says: ‘The
Br^hma»as are regarded throughout the five divisions
of India as the most respectable. They do not walk
with the other three castes, and other mixed classes
of people are still further dissociated from them.
They revere their Scriptures, the four Yedas, con-
taining about ioo,oQO verses. ... The Vedas are
handed down from mouth to mouth, not written on
paper. There are in every generation some intelli-
gent Brihmans who can recite those 100,000 verses.
... I myself saw such men.’

Here then we have an eye-witness who, in the

VEDA AND VEDANTA.

513

seventh century after Christ, visited India, learnt
Sanskrit, and spent about twenty years in different
monasteries — a man who had no theories of his own
about oral tradition, but who, on the contrary, as
coming from China, was quite familiar with the idea of
a written, nay, of a printed literature : — and yet what
does he sayl ‘The Yedas are not written on paper,
but handed down from mouth to mouth.’

Now, I do not quite agree here with I-tsing. At
all events, we must not conclude from what he says
that there existed no Sanskrit MSS. at all at his
time. We know they existed. We kno\V that
in the first century of our era Sanskrit MSS. were
carried from India to China and translated there.
Most- likely therefore there w'ere MSS. of the Veda
also in existence. But I-tsing, for all that, was right
in supposing that these MSS. were not allowed to be
used by students, and that they had always to leam
the Veda by heart and from the mouth of a properly
qualified teacher. The very fact that in the later
law-books severe punishments are threatened against
persons who copy the Veda or learn it from a MS.,
shows that MSS. existed, and that their existence
interfered seriously with the ancient privileges of the
Brahmans, as the only legitimate teachers of their
sacred scriptures.

If now, after having heard this account of I-tsing,
we go back for about another thousand years, we shall
feel less sceptical in accepting the evidence which we
find in the so-called Pr^tis^khyas, that is, collections
of rules which, so far as we know at present, go back
to the fifth century before our era, and which tell us
almost exactly the same as what we can see in India
at the present moment, namely that the education of

214 ■ LECTUEE VII.

cMldfen. of the three twice-horn castes, the BrAhma^zas,
Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas, consisted in their passing at
least eight years in the house of a Guru, and learning
by heart the ancient Vedic hymns.

The art of teaching had even at that early time
been reduced to a perfect sj^stem, and at that time
certainly there is not the slightest trace of anything,
such as a book, or skin, or parchment, a sheet of
paper, pen or ink, being known even by name to the
people of India ; while every expression connected
with what we should call literature, points to a litera-
ture (we cannot help using that word) existing in
memory only, and being handed down with the most
scrupulous care by means of oral tradition.

I had to enter into these details because I know
that, with our ideas of literature, it rec[uires an effort
to imagine the bare possibility of a large amount of
poetry, and still more of prose, existing in any but a
written form. And yet here too we only see what
we see elsewhere, namely that man, before the great
discoveries of civilisation were made, was able by
greater individual efforts to achieve what to us, accus-
tomed to easier contrivances, seems almost impossible.
So-caUed savages were able to chip flints, to get fire
by rubbing sticks of wood, which baffles our handiest
workmen. Are we to suppose that, if they wished
to preserve some songs which, as they believed, had
once secured them the favour of their gods, had
brought rain from heaven, or led them on to victory,
they would have found no means of doing so? We
have only to read such accounts as, for instance, Mr.
William Wyatt Gill has given us in his 'Historical
Sketches of Savage Life in Polynesia to see how

y "Wellington,

VEDA AND VEdIntA.

'215

anxious even savages are to preserve the records of
their ancient heroes, kings, and gods, particularly
■when the dignity or nobility of certain families de-
pends on these songs, or when they contain what
might be called the title-deeds to large estates. And
that the Vedic Indians were not the only savages of
antiquity who discovered the means of preserving a
large literature by means of oral tradition, we may
learn from Csesar not a very credulous witness, who
tells us that the ‘ Druids were said to know a large
number of verses by heart ; that some of them spent
twenty years in learning them, and that they con-^
sidered it wrong to commit them to writing’ — exactly
the same story which we hear in India.

We must return once more to the question of
dates. We have traced the existence of the Veda*
as handed down by oral tradition, from our days
to the days of I-tsiug in the seventh century after
Christ, and again to the period of the Prltis^lkhyas,
in the fifth century before Christ.

In that fifth century B.c. took place the rise of
Buddhism, a religion built up on the ruins of the
Vedic religion, and founded, so to say, on the denial
of the divine authority ascribed to the Veda by all
orthodox Brdhmans.

Whatever exists therefore of Vedic literature must
be accommodated within the centuries preceding the
rise of Buddhism, and if I tell you that there are
three periods of Vedic literature to be accommodated,
the third presupposing the second, and the second the
first, and that even that first period presents us with

^ De Bello Gall. vi. 14 ; History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature,
p. 506.

216

LECTURE VII.

a collection, and a systematic collection of Vedic
hymns, I think you will agree with me that it is
from no desire for an extreme antiquity, but simply
from a respect for facts, that students of the Veda
have come to the conclusion that these hymns, of
which the MSS. do not carry us hack beyond the
fifteenth century after Christ, took their origin in the
fifteenth century before Christ.

One fact I must mention once more, because I
think it may carry conviction even against the
stoutest scepticism.

I mentioned that the earliest inscriptions disco-
vered in India belong to the reign of King Asoka, the
grandson of Aandragupta, who reigned from 259-222
before Christ. What is the language of those in-
scriptions? Is it the Sanskrit of the Vedic hymns?
Certainly not. Is it the later Sanskrit of the Br^h-
manas and Stitras ? Certainly not. These inscriptions
are written in the local dialects as then spoken in India,
and these local dialects differ from the grammatical
Sanskrit about as much as Italian does from Latin.

What follows from this ? First, that the archaic
Sanskrit of the Veda had ceased to he spoken before
the third century B. e. Secondly, that even the later
grammatical Sanskrit was no longer spoken and un-
derstood by the people at large; that Sanskrit there-
fore had ceased, nay, we may say, had long ceased to
be the spoken language of the country when Buddhism
arose, and that therefore the youth and manhood of
the ancient Vedic language lie far beyond the period
that gave birth to the teaching of Buddha, who,
though he may have known Sanskrit, and even Vedic
Sanskrit, insisted again and again on the duty that his

VEDA AND VEDANTA.

217

disciples stotild preach his doctrines in the language
of the people -whom they wished to benefit.

And now, when the time allotted to me is nearly
at an end, I find, as it always happens, that I have
not been able to say one half of what I hoped to say
as to the lessons to be learnt by us in India, even
with regard to this one branch of human knowledge
only, the study of the origin of religion. I hope,
however, I may have succeeded in showing you the
entirely new aspect which the old problem of the
theogony, or the origin and growth of the Devas or gods,
assumes from the light thrown upon it by the Veda.
Instead of positive theories, we now have positive
facts, such as you look for in vain anywhere else; and
though there is still a considerable interval between
the Devas of the Veda, even in their highest form,
and such concepts as Zeus, Apollon, and Athene, yet
the chief riddle is solved, and we know now at last
what stuff” the gods of the ancient world were made of.

But this theogonic process is but one side of the
ancient Vedic religion, and there are two other sides
of at least the same importance and of even a deeper
interest to us.

There are in fact three religions in the Veda, or, if
I may say so, three naves in one great temple, reared, as
it were, before our eyes by poets, prophets, and philo-
sophers, Here, too, we can watch the work and the
workmen. We have notto deal with hard formulas only,
with unintelligible ceremonies, or petrified fetishes.
We can see how the human mind arrives by a per-
fectly rational process at all its later irrationalities.
This is what distinguishes the Veda from all other
Sacred Books, Much, no doubt, in the Veda also,

218

LECTUKB VII.

and in tlie Vedic ceremonial, is already old and unin-
telligible, bard and petrified. But in many cases the
development o£ names and concepts, their transition
from the natural to the supernatural, from the indi-
vidual to the general, is still going on, and it is for
that very reason that Vte find it so difficult, nay
almost impossible, to translate the growing thoughts
of the Veda into the full-grown and more than full-
grown language of our time.

Let us take one of the oldest words for god in the
Veda, such as deva, the Latin deus. The dictionaries
tell you that deva means god and gods, and so, no
doubt, it does. But if we always translated deva in
the Vedic hymns by god, we should not be translating,
hut completely transforming the thoughts of the Vedic
poets. I do not mean only that our idea of God is
totally different from the idea that was intended to
he expressed by deva ; hut even the Greek and
Koman concept of gods wordd be totally inadequate
to convey the thoughts imbedded in the Vedic deva.
Deva meant originally bright, and nothing else.
Meaning bright, it was constantly used of the sky,
the stars, the sun, the dawn, the day, the spring, the
rivers, the earth ; and when a poet wished to speak of
all of these by one and the same word — by what we
should call a general term — he called them all Devas.
When that had been done, Deva did no longer mean
‘the Bright ones,’ but the name comprehended all
the qualities which the sky and the sun and the
dawn shared in common, excluding only those that
were peculiar to each.

Here you see how, by the simplest process, the
Devas, the bright ones, might become and did become
the Devas, the heavenly, the kind, the powerful, the

VEDA AND VEDANTA.

219

invisible, the immortal — and, in the end, something
very like the 6eoi (or dii) of Greeks and Romans.

In this way one Beyond, the Beyond of Nature,
was built up in the ancient religion of the Veda, and
peopled with Devas, and Asuras, and Vasus, and
Adityas, all names for the bright solar, celestial, diur-
nal, and vernal powers of nature, without altogether
excluding, however, even the dark and unfriendly
powers, those of the night, of the dark clouds, or of
winter, capable of mischief, but always destined in
the end to succumb to the valour and strength of their
bright antagonists.

We now come to the second nave of the Vedic
temple, the second JBeyond that was dimly perceived,
and grasped and named by the ancient Rishis, namely
the world of the Departed Spirits,

There was in India, as elsewhere, another very
early faith, springing up naturally in the hearts of
the people, that their fathers and mothers, when they
departed this life, departed to a Beyond, wherever it
might be, either in the East from whence all the bright
Devas seemed to come, or more commonly in the West,
the land to which they seemed to go, called in the
Veda the realm of Yama or the setting sun. The idea
that beings which once had been, could ever cease to
be, had not yet entered their minds ; and from the
belief that their fathers existed somewhere, though
they could see them no more, there arose the belief in
another Beyond, and the germs of another religion.

Nor was the actual power of the fathers quite im-
perceptible or extinct even after their death. Their
presence continued to be felt in the ancient laws and
customs of the family, most of which rested on their

220

LECTURE VII.

will and their authority. While their fathers were
alive and strong, their will was law ; and when, after
their death, douhts or disputes arose on points of law
or custom, it was but natural that the memory and the
authority of the fathers should he appealed to to settle
such points — that the law should still he their will.

Thus Manu says (IV. 178}: ‘ On the path on which his
fathers and grandfathers have walked, on that path of
good men let him walk, and he will not go wrong.’

In the same manner then in which, out of the
bright powers of nature, the Devas or gods had arisen,
there arose out of predicates shared in common by the
departed, such as pitr^s, fathers, preta, gone away,
another general concept, what we should call Manes,
the kind ones. Ancestors, Shades, Spirits or Ghosts,
whose worship was nowhere more fully developed
than in India. That common name, Pitres or
gradually attracted towards itself all that the fathers
shared in common. It came to mean not only fathers,
but invisible, kind, powerful, immortal, heavenly
beings, and we can watch in the Veda, better perhaps
than anywhere else, the inevitable, yet most touching
metamorphosis of ancient thought,— the love of the
child for father and mother becoming transfigured into
an instinctive belief in the immortality of the soul.

It is strange, and really more than strange, that
not only should this important and prominent side of
the ancient religion of the Hindus have been ignored,
but that of late its very existence should have been
doubted. I feel obliged, therefore, to add a few words
in support of what I have said just now of the
supreme, importance of this belief in and this worship
of ancestral spirits in India from the most ancient to
the most modern times. Mr. Herbert Spencer, who

YEDA AND VEDANTA.

221

lias done so mncli in calling attention to ancestor-
worship as a natural ingredient of religion among all
savage nations, declares in the most emphatic man-
ner^, ' that he has seen it implied, that he has heard
it in conversation, and that he now has it before him
in print, that no Indo-European or Semitic nation,
so far as we know, seems to have made a religion of
the worship of the dead.’ I do not doubt his words,
but I think that on so important a point, Mr. Herbert
Spencer ought to have named his authorities. It
seems to me almost impossible that anybody who
has ever opened a book on India should have made
such a statement. There are hymns in the Eig-veda
addressed to the Fathers. There are full descriptions
of the worship due to the Fathers in the Brdhmanas
and Shtras. The epic poems, the law hooks, the
Pur^was, all are brimful of allusions to ancestral
offerings. The whole social fabric of India, with its
laws of inheritance and marriage®, rests on a belief
in the Manes, — and yet we are told that no Indo-
European nation seems to have made a religion of
the worship of the dead.

The Persians had their Fravashis, the Greeks their
eiSaiXa, or rather their 6 eol ’uraTp^oi and their Salpove^,
ea' 0 Xoi, iTi‘)(66vL0i, tpvXaKes OvriTwv avOpii'Trwv'
ol pa (j^vXdaarovcrlv re SIku? Kai cr)(iTXia epya,

^epa eartrdfjLevoi vdvTij (poiTwvrei eir atav,

'irXovToSoTai (Hesiodi Opera et Dies, w. 122—126);

^ Principles of Sociology, p. 313.

® ‘ The Hindu Law of Inheritance is based upon the Hindu
religion, and we must be cautious that in administering Hindu
law we do not, by acting upon our notions derived from English
law, inadvertently wound or offend the religious feelings of those
who may be affected by our decisions.’ Bengal Law Reports, 103.

222

LECTXJEB Vn.

■while aiBong the BrOmans the Lctres familiares and
the jDwi Manes were worshipped more zealously than
any other gods Manu goes so far as to tell us in
one place (III. 203): ‘An oblation by Brahmans to
their ancestors transcends an oblation to the deities;’
and yet we are told that no Indo-European nation
seems to have made a religion of the worship of the
dead.

Such things ought really not to be, if there is to
be any progress in historical research, and I cannot
help thinking that what Mr. Herbert Spencer meant
was probably no more than that some scholars did
not admit that the worship of the dead formed the
whole of the religion of any of the Indo-European
nations. That, no doubt, is perfectly true, but it
would be equally true, I believe, of almost any other
religion. And on this point again the students of
anthropology will learn more, I believe, from the
Veda than from any other book.

In the Veda the PitWs, or fathers, are invoked to-
gether with the Devas, or gods, but they are not
confounded with them. The Devas never become
Pitris, and though such adjectives as dev a are some-
times applied to the Pitn’s, and they are raised to the
rank of the older classes of Devas (Manu III. 192, 284,
YH^^iavalkya I. 268), it is easy to see that the Pitn’s
and Devas had each their independent origin, and
that they represent two totally distinct phases of the
human mind in the creation of its objects of worship.
This is a lesson which ought never to be forgotten.

We read in the Eig-veda, VI. 52, 4; ‘May the
rising Dawns protect me, may the flowing Eivers

' Cicero, De Leg. II. 9, 22, ‘Deorum ruanium jura sancta sunto;
nos leto clatos divos habento.’

223

VEDA AND VEdIntA.

protect me, may the firm Mountains protect me, may
the Fathers protect me at this invocation of the
gods.’ Here nothing Can be clearer than the separate
existence of the Fathers, apart from the Dawns, the
Bivers, and the Mountains, though they are included
in one common Devahhti, or invocation of the gods.

We must distinguish, however, from the very first,
between two classes, or rather between two concepts
of Fathers, the one comprising the distant, half-for-
gotten, and almost mythical ancestors of certain
families or of what would have been to the poets of
the Veda, the whole human race, the other consisting
of the fathers who had but lately departed, and who
were still, as it were, personally remembered and
revered.

The old ancestors in general approach more nearly
to the gods. They are often represented as having
gone to the abode of Yama, the ruler of the departed,
and to live there in company with some of the Devas
(Eig-veda VII. 76, 4, devfo 4 ?re sadham^daA ; Eig-veda
X. 16, 1, dev^n^OT vasanl^).

We sometimes read of the great-grandfathers being
in heaven, the grandfathers in the sky, the fathers on
the earth, the first in company with the Adityas, the
second with the Budras, the last with the Vasus.
All these are individual poetical conceptions ^

Yama himself is sometimes invoked as if he were
one of the Fathers, the first of mortals that died or
that trod the path of the Fathers (the pitnyiwa, X.
2, 7) leading to the common sunset in the West I

^ See AtLarva-veda XVIII. 2, 49.

“ Eig-veda X. 14, 1-2. He is called Vaivasvata, the solar (X.
58, i), and even the son of Vivasvat (X. 14, 5). In a later phase

224

XECTUEE VII.

Still liis real Deva-like nature is never completely
lost, and, as the god of the setting sun, he is indeed
the leader of the Fathers, hut not one of the Fathers
himself h

Many of the benefits which men enjoyed on earth
were referred to the Fathers, as having first been
procured and first enjoyed by them. They performed
the jSrst sacrifices, and secured the benefits arising
from them. Even the great events in nature, such
as the rising of the sun, the light of the day and the
darkness of the night, were sometimes referred to
them, and they were praised for having broken open the
dark stable of the moradng and having brought out
the cows, that is, the days (X. 68, 1 1 ) They were
even praised for having adorned the night with stars,
while in later writings the stars are said to be the
lights of the good people who have entered into
heaven®. Similar ideas, we know, prevailed among
the ancient Persians, Greeks, and Romans. The
Fathers are called in the Yeda truthful (satyd.), wise
(suvidRra), righteous (n'tfivat), poets (kavf), leaders
(pathikrit), and one of their most frequent epithets
is somya, delighting in Soma, Soma being the
ancient intoxicating beverage of the Vedic .Sushis,
which was believed to bestow immortality^, but
which had been lost, or at all events had become

of religious thougM Tama is conceived as the first man (Atharva-
veda XVIII. 3, 13, as compared -with Eig-veda X. 14, i).

^ Eig-veda X. 14.

® In the Avesta many of these things are done by Ahura Mazda
with the help of the Fravashis.

* See Aatapatha Brahmawa I. 9, 3, 10 ; VI. 5, 4, 8.

* Eig-veda VIII. 48, 3 : ‘ We drank Soma, we became immortal,
we went to the lights we found the gods; ' VIII. 48, 12.

VEJDA AND VEDANTA.

225

difficult to obtain by the Aryans, after their migration
into the Punjab b

The families of the Bhrz'gus, the Ahgiras, the Athar-
vans^ aU have their Pitn's or Fathers, who are invoked
to sit down on the grass and to accept the offerings
placed there for them. Even the name of Yiirij&gn&,
sacrifice of the Fathers, occurs already in the hymns
of the Eig-veda b

The following is one of the hymns of the Eig-veda
by which those ancient Fathers were invited to come
to their sacrifice (Eig-veda X. 15)^ : — -

1. ‘May the Soma-loving Fathers, the lowest, the
highest, and the middle, arise. May the gentle and
righteous Fathers who have come to life (again),
protect us in these invocations !

2. ‘ May this salutation be for the Fathers to-day,
for those who have departed before or after; whether
they now dwell in the sky above the earth, or among
the blessed people.

3. ‘ I invited the wise Fathers .... may they
come hither quickly, and sitting on the grass readily
partake of the poured-out draught !

4. ‘ Come hither to us with your help, you Fathers
who sit on the grass ! We have prepared these liba-
tions for you, accept them ! Come hither with your
most blessed protection, and give us health and
wealth without fail !

5. ‘The Soma-loving Fathers have been called
hitherto their dear viands which are placed on the
grass. Let them approach, let them Hsten, let them
bless, let them protect us !

^ Eig-veda IX. 97, 39. “ Ibid. X. 14, 6. ° Ibid. X.i6,ro.

* A translatioa considerably dififering from my own is given by
Sarvfidbik£ri in his Tagore Lectures for 1880, p. 34.

Q

226

LECXUEE VII,

6. ‘Bending your knee and sitting on my right
accept all this sacrifice. Bo not hurt us, 0 Fathers,
for any wrong that we may have committed against
you, men as we are.

7. ‘When you sit down on the lap of the red

dawns, grant wealth to the generous mortal ! 0

Fathers, give of your treasure to the sons of this man
here, and bestow vigour here on us !

8. ‘ May Yama, as a friend with friends, consume
the offerings according to his wish, united with those
old Soma-loving Fathers of ours, the Yasishi/ias, who
arranged the Soma draught.

9. ‘Come hither, -0 Agni, with those wise and
truthful Fathers who like to sit down near the
hearth, who thirsted when yearning for the gods,
who knew the sacrifice, and who were strong in
praise with their songs.

10. ‘Come, 0 Agni, with those ancient fathers who
like to sit down near the hearth, who for ever praise
the gods, the truthful, who eat and drink our obla-
tions, making company with Indra and the gods.

11. ‘0 Fathers, you who have been consumed by
Agni, come here, sit down on your seats, you kind
guides! Eat of the offerings which we have placed
on the turf, and tFen grant us wealth and strong
offspring!

12. ‘0 Agni, 0 G^tavedash at our request thou
hast carried the offerings, having first rendered them
sweet. Thou gavest them to the Fathers, and they
fed on their share. Eat also, O god, the proffered
oblations!

13. ‘ The Fathers who are here, and the Fathers
who are not here, those whom we know, and those

‘ Of. Max Muller, Eig-veda, transl. vol. i. p. 24.

VEDA AND VEdInTA.

227

•whom we know not, thou, GMavedas, knowest how
many they are, accept the well-made sacrifice with
the sacrifical portions !

14 . ‘To those who, whether burnt by fire or not
burnt by fire, rejoice in their share in the midst of
heaven, grant thou, 0 King, that their body may
take that life which they wish for^!’

Distinct from the worship ofiered to these primi-
tive ancestors, is the reverence which from an early
time was felt to be due by children to their departed
father, soon also to their grandfather, and great-
grandfather. The ceremonies in which these more
personal feelings found expression were of a more
domestic character, and allowed therefore of greater
local variety.

It would be quite impossible to give here even an
abstract only of the minute regulations which have
been preserved to us in the Br4hmanas, the /Srauta,
Gnhya, and S4may4Mrika S'dtras, the Law-books,
and a mass of latter manuals on the performance of
endless rites, aU intended to honour the Departed.
Such are the minute prescriptions as to times and
seasons, as to altars and offerings, as to the number
and shape of the sacrificial vessels, as to the proper
postures of the sacrificers, and the different arrange-
ments of the vessels, that it is extremely difScult to
catch hold of what we really care for, namely, the
thoughts and intentions of those who first devised all
these intricacies. Much has been written on this
class of sacrifices by European scholars also, begin-
ning with Colebrooke’s excellent essays on ‘The Eeli-
gious Ceremonies of the Hindus,^ first published in

228

LECnrRB VII.

the Asiatic -Researches, vol. v, Calcutta, 1 798. But
when "we ask the simple question, What was the
thought from whence all this outward ceremonial
sprang, and what was the natural craving of the
human heart which it seemed to satisfy, we hardly
get an intelligible answer any where. It is true that
S^rMdhas continue to be performed all over India to
the present day, but we know how widely the modern
ceremonial has diverged ’from the rules laid down in
the old /S4stras, and it is quite clear from the descrip-
tions given to us by recent travellers that no one can
understand the purport even of these survivals of the
old ceremonial, unless he understands Sanskrit and can
read the old Shtras. We are indeed told in full detail
how the cakes were made which the Spirits were sup-
posed to eat, how many stalks of grass were to be used
on which they had to be offered, how long each stalk
ought to be, and in what direction it should be held.
All the things which teach us nothing are explained
to us in abundance, but the few things which the
true scholar really cares for are passed over, as if
they had no interest to us at all, and have to be
discovered under heaps of rubbish.

In order to gain a little light, I think we ought to
distinguish between —

1. The daily ancestral sacrifice, the Pitrfya^»a, as
one of the five Great Sacrifices (Mahfya^^as) ;

2 . The monthly ancestral sacrifice, the Pi«da-pitn'-
yay^a, as part of the New and Full-moon sacrifice ;

3. The funeral ceremonies on the death of a house-
holder;

4. The Agapes, or feasts of love and charity, com-
monly called ^Iddhas, at which food and other
charitable gifts were bestowed on deserving persons

VEDA AND VEDANTA.

229

in memory of the deceased ancestors. The name of
^rMdha belongs properly to this last class only, but
it has been transferred to the second and third class
of sacrifices also, because &Mdha formed an important
part in them.

The daily PitWyay^a or Ancestor- worship is one of
the five sacrifices, sometimes called the Great Sacri-
fices h which every married' man ought to perform
day by day. They are mentioned in the Grihya-
sfitras (Asv. III. i), as Devayay^a, for the Devas,
Blrfitayay^la, for animals &c., Yiiriyagtm, for the
Fathers, Brahmayay;2a, for Brahman, i.e. study of
the Veda, and Manushyayay^a, for men, i. e. hos-
pitality, &c. ’

Manu (III. 70) tells us the same, namely, that a
married man has five great religious duties to per-
form

I. The Brahma -sacrifice, i.e. the studying and
teaching of the Veda (sometimes called Ahuta).

3 . The Pitri-sacrifice, i.e. the offering of cakes and
Avater to the Manes (sometimes called Pr4sita).

3. The Beva-sacrifice, i. e. the offering of oblations
to the Gods (sometimes called Huta).

4. The Bhfita-sacrifice, i.e. the giving of food to
living creatures (sometimes called Prahuta).

5. The Manushya-sacrifice, i.e. the receiving of
guests with hospitality (sometimes called Brdhmya
huta^).

The performance of this daily Pitriyay;?a seems to

^ (Satapatha Br 4 hma«a XL 5, 6,.i; Taitt. Ar. II. ii, 10; A«va-
layana Grihya-sutras III. r, i; Piraskara Grihya-sutras II. 9, i;
Apastamba, Dharma-slitras, translated by Biihler, pp. 47 seq.

'•* In the /Sahkhayana Grihya (L 5) four PSka-yaywas are men-

230

LECTUBE VII.

have been extremely simple. The honsebolder had
to put his sacred cord on the right shoulder, to say
‘ Svadh4 to the Fathers,’ and to throw the remains of
certain offerings towards the South

The human impulse to this sacrifice, if sacrifice it
can be called, is clear enough. The five ‘ great sacri-
fices ’ comprehended in early times the* whole duty of
man from day to day. They were connected with his
daily meal 2 . When this meal was preparing, and
before he could touch it himself, he was to offer some-
thing to the Gods, a Vaisvadeva offering \ in which
the chief deities were Agni, fire, Soma the Visve
Devas, Dhanvantari, a kind of Aesculapius, Kuhh
and Anumati (phases of the moon), Prayipati, lord of
creatures, DyUvi-pn'thivi, Heaven and Earth, and Svi-
shtakrff, the fire on the hearth.

After having thus satisfied the Gods in the four quar-
ters, the householder had to throw some oblations into
the open air, which were intended for animals, and in
some cases for invisible beings, ghosts and such like.
Then he was to remember the Departed, the Pitrfs,
with some offerings; but even after having done this
he was not yet to begin his own repast, unless he had
also given something to strangers (atithis).

When all this had been fulfilled, and when, besides,
the householder, as we should say, had said his daily
prayers, or repeated what he had learnt of the Veda,
then and then only was he in harmony with the
world that surrounded him’, the five Great Sacrifices
had been performed by him, and he was free from all
the sins arising from a thoughtless and selfish life.

^ Asy. Gr^hya-sl 1 tras I. 3, lo.

® Manu III. 85.

2 Manu III. 117-118.

VEDA AND VEdInTA. 231

This PitWya^^a, as one of the five daily sacrifices,
is described in the Br^hmanas, the Gnhya and
S4may4^4rika Shtras, and, of course, in the legal
SamhMs. RajendralM Mitra^ informs us that
‘ orthodox Brihmans to this day profess to observe
all these five ceremonies, but that in reality only
the offerings to the gods and manes are strictly
observed, while the reading is completed by the
repetition of the G^atri only, and charity and feeding
of animals are casual and uncertain.’

Quite different from this simple daily ancestral
offering is the PitWyay?^a or Pi^^^ia-pitr^yay^a,
which' forms part 'of many of the statutable sacrifices,
and, first of all, of the New and Pull-Moon sacrifice.
Here again the human motive is intelligible enough.
It was the contemplation of the regular course of
nature, the discovery of order in the coming and
going of the heavenly bodies, the growing confidence
in some ruling power of the world which lifted man’s
thoughts from his daily work to higher regions, and
filled his heart with a desire to approach these
higher powers with praise, thanksgiving, and offer-
ings. And it was at such moments as the waning
of the moon that his thoughts would most naturally
turn to those whose life had waned, whose bright
faces were no longer visible on earth, his fathers or
ancestors. Therefore at the very beginning of the
New-Moon sacrifice, we are told in the Br4hmanas ^
and in the &auta-sfitras, that a Pitnya^^a, a sacri-
fice to the Fathers, has to be performed. A Aarii

^ Taittirijarawyaka^ Preface, p, 23.

^ Masi masi Yo'^anam iti srute^ ; Gobhilija Gnhya -siitras,
P- 1055-

232

LECDTUEE VII.

or pie had to be prepared in the Dahshin^ni, the
southern fire, and the offerings, consisting of water
and round cakes (pi«das), were specially dedicated
to father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, while
the wife of the sacrificer, if she wished for a son,
was allowed to eat one of the cakes

Similar ancestral offerings took place during other
sacrifices too, of which the New and Full-Moon sacri-
fices form the general type.

It may be quite true that these two kinds of
ancestral sacrifices have the same object and share
the same name, but their character is different ; and
if, as has often been the case, they are mixed up
together, we lose the most important lessons which
a study of the ancient ceremonial should teach us.
I cannot describe the difference between these two
Pitnyaywas more decisively than by pointing out
that the former was performed by the father of a
family, or, if we may say so, by a layman, the latter
by a regular priest, or a class of priests, selected by
the sacrificer to act in his behalf As the Hindus
themselves would put it, the former is a grfhya,
a domestic, the latter a srauta, a priestly ceremony 2.

We now come to a third class of ceremonies which
are likewise domestic and personal, but which differ

’ See Pm(^apxtnya^%a, von Dr. 0 . Bonner, iS'/o. The restric-
tion to three ancestors, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather,
occurs in the Va^asaneyi-samhM, XIX. 36-37.

^ There is, however, great variety in these matters, according to
different ^’akhas. Thus, according to the Gobhila-sakha, the Yindn,
Pitr^‘ya^?^a is to he considered as smarta, not as srauta (pmc?a-
pitr^ya^?la/^ khalv asma^Makhayam nasti) ; while others maintain
that an agnimat should perform the smarta, a srautagnimatthe srauta
PitnyayT^a; see Gohhiliya Gnhya-sutras, p. 671. On page 667 we
read : aiiagner amavasy^sraddh^, nanvaharyam ity adara^)^iyam,

TED A. A3SX» VEdIotA.

233

from the two preceding ceremonies by their occasional
character, I mean the funeral, as distinct from the
ancestral ceremonies. In otie respect these funeral
ceremonies may represent an earlier phase of worship
than the daily and monthly ancestral sacrifices. They
lead up to them, and, as it were, prepare the
departed for their future dignity as Pitr*s or
Ancestors. On the other hand, the conception of
Ancestors in general must have^ existed before any
departed person could have been raised to that rank,
and I therefore preferred to describe the ancestral
sacrifices first.

Nor need I enter here very fully iiito the character
of the special funeral ceremonies of India. I described
them in a special paper, ‘ On Sepulture and Sacrificial
Customs in the Yeda,’ nearly thirty years ago b
Their spirit is the same as that of the funeral
ceremonies of Greeks, Eomans, Slavonic, and Teutonic
nations, and the coincidences between them all are
often most surprising.

In Vedic times the people in India both burnt
and buried their dead, and they did this with a
certain solemnity, and, after a time, according to
fixed rules. Their ideas about the status of the
departed, after their body had been burnt and their
ashes buried, varied considerably, but in the main
they seem to have believed in a life to come, not
very different from our life on earth, and in the power
of the departed to confer blessings on their descend-
ants. It soon therefore became the interest of the
survivors to secure the favour of their departed
friends by observances and ofierings which, at first.

^ tiber Todtenbestattung tind Opfergebraiicbe im Veda, in Zeit-
sclirift der Deutsclien Morgealandiseben Gesellschaft, voL ix, 1856.

234

LECTUEE VII.

"were the spontaneous manifestation of human
feelings, but which soon became traditional, technical,
in fact, ritual.

On the day on which the corpse had. been burnt,
the relatives (saminodakas) bathed and poured out
a handfull of water to the deceased, pronouncing his
name and that of his family b At sunset they re-
turned home, and, as was but natural, they were
told to cook nothing during the €rst night, and to
observe certain rules during the nest day up to
ten days, according to the character of the deceased.
These were days of mourning, or, as they were
afterwards called, days of impurity, when the
mourners withdrew from contact with the world,
and shrank by a natural impulse from the ordinary
occupations and pleasures of life

Then followed the collecting of the ashes on the
iith, 13th or 15th day of the dark half of the moon.
On returning from thence they bathed, and then
offered what was called a ^rMdha to the departed.

This word & 4 ddha, which meets us here for the
first time, is full of interesting lessons, if only properly
understood. First of all it should be noted that it
is absent, not only from the hymns, but, so far as we
know at present, even from the ancient Br 4 hmattas.
It seems therefore a word of a more modern origin.
There is a passage in Apastamba’s Dharma-sdtras
which betrays, on the part of the author, a conscious-
ness of the more modern origin of the /SrMdhas ®

^ A«valayana GHhya-sutras IV. 4, 10. ^ Manu V. 64-65.

® Biihler, Apastamba, Sacred Books of the East, vol. ii. p. 138 ;
also /Sraddhakalpa, p. 890. Though the >S'rMdha is prescribed in
the Gobhiliya Gnhya-shtras, IV. 4, 2-3, it is not described there,
but in a separate treatise, the /SrMdha-kalpa.

VEDA AND VEDANTA.

235

‘ Former! j men and gods lived together in this
world. Then the gods in reward of their sacrifices
went to heaven, but men were left behind. Those
men who perform sacrifices in the same manner as
the gods did, dwelt (after death) with the gods and
Brahman in heaven. Now (seeing men left behind)
Mann revealed this ceremony which is designated by
the word & 4 ddha.’

Sr4ddha has assumed many^ meanings, and Manu^,
for instance, uses it almost synonymously with pitn-
t jagnsk. But its original meaning seems to have been

‘that which is given with sraddh^ or faith,’ i.e. charity
bestowed on deserving persons, and, more particularly,
on Br 4 hmawas. The gift was called srAddha, but the
act itself also was called by the same name. The word
is best explained by N^r^yajza in his commentary on
the Gn'hya-sfitras of AsvaMyana (lY. 7 ), ‘ /SrMdha is
that which is given in faith to Br4hmans for the sake
of the Fathers®.’

Such charitable gifts flowed most natirrally and
abundantly at the time of a man’s death, or when-
ever his memory was revived by happy or unhappy
events in a family, and hence /Sr^ddha has become
the general name for ever so many sacred acts com-

^ As meaning the food, srMdha occurs in sriddhabhug' and
similar words. As meaning the sacrificial act, it is explained,
yatraitai: MraddhayS diyate tad eva karma sraddhasabdabhi-
dheyam. Pretam ■pitrtms h. nirdisya bhog'yajra yat priyam atma-
na^ sraddhaya; diyate yatra ta^ MrMdliam pariklrtitam. Grobhi-
liya Grihya-sfitras, p. 892. "We also read araddh^nvitaA srfiddham
kurvita, ‘ let a man perform the sraddha with faith ; ’ Gobhiliya
Gnhya-sdtras, p. 1053.

“ Mann III. 82.

® PitHn uddiaya yad diyate brEhmawebhyaA sraddhaya; taA
AAraddham.

236

LECTURE VII.

memorative of the departed. We hear of /S'rMdhas
not only at funerals, but at joyous events also, ■when
presents were bestowed in the name of the family,
and therefore in the name of the ancestors also, on
all who had a right to that distinction. •

It is a mistake therefore to look upon >Si'^ddhas
simply as offerings of water or cakes to the Fathers.
An offering to the Fathers was, no doubt, a symbolic
part of each Sr^ddha, but its more important character
was charity bestowed in memory of the Fathers.

This, in time, gave rise to much abuse, like the
alms bestowed on the Church during the Middle
Ages. But in the beginning the motive was excellent.
It was simply a wish to benefit others, arising from
the conviction, felt more strongly in the presence of
death than at any other time, that as w^e can carry
nothing out of this world, we ought to do as much
good as possible in the world with our worldly goods.
At >S'rlddhas the Br^hmanas were said to represent
the sacrificial fire into which the gifts should be
thrownb If we translate here Brihmawas by priests,
we can easily understand why there should have been
in later times so strong a feeling against &4ddhas.
But priest is a very bad rendering of Br4hma%a. The
Br4hmawas were, socially and intellectually, a class of
men of high breeding. They were a recognised and,
no doubt, a most essential element in the ancient
society of India. As they lived for others, and
were excluded from most of the lucrative pursuits
of life, it was a social, and it soon became a reli-
gious duty, that they should be supported by the
community at large. Great care was taken that

* Apastamba II. i6, 3, BrfihmaMSs tv ihavantyilrtlie.

VEDA AND VEDANTA,

237

the recipients of such bounty as was bestowed at
/S^rdddhas should be strangers, neither friends nor
enemies, and in no way related to the family. Thus
Apastamba says^ ; ‘ The food eaten (at a *Sr4ddha) by
persons related to the giver is a gift offered to gob-
lins. It reaches neither the Manes nor the Gods.’
A man who tried to curry favour by bestowing ySrld-
dhika gifts, was called by an opprobrious name, a
#Srdddha-mitra

Without denying therefore that in later times the
system of ;Sr4ddhas may have degenerated, I think
we can perceive that it sprang from a pure source,
and, what for our present purpose is even more
important, from an intelligible source.

Let us now return to the passage in the Gnhya-
shtras of Asvaldyana, where we met for the first
time with the name of ^rMdha®. It was the /Sr4ddha
to be given for the sake of the Departed, after his
ashes had been collected in an urn and buried. This
/SkMdha is called ekoddishifa or, as we should say,
personal. It was meant for one person only, not for
the three ancestors, nor for aU the ancestors. Its
object was in fact to raise the departed to the rank
of a Pitrf, AJi'i tliis had to be achieved by /SrMdha
offerings continued during a whole year. This at
least is the general, and, most likely, the original
rule. Apastamba says that the ySiAddha for a de-
ceased relative should be performed every day during
the year, and that after that a monthly &Mdha only
should be performed or none at all, that is, no more

'L. c. p. 142. “ Manu III. 138, 140.

® A,9v. GHhya-sutras rV". 5, 8.

^ It is described as a vikriti of the Parvana-^raddha in GohH-
lija Gnhya-shtraSj p. loi i. ^ ^

238

LECTURE VII.

personal /Sridd ha h because tbe departed shares hence-
forth in the regular PUrvawa-sr^ddhas ^ yS'4nkh4yana
says the same®, namely that the personal 5r4ddha lasts
for a year, and that then ‘ the Fourth ’ is dropped, i. e.
the great-grandfather was dropped, the grandfather
became the great-grandfather, the father the grand-
father, while the lately Departed occupied the father’s
place among the three principal Pitrfsh This was
called the SapincZikarajia, i.e. the elevating of the
departed to the rank of an ancestor.

There are here, as elsewhere, many exceptions. Go-
bhila allows six months instead of a year, or even a
Tripaksha ®, i. e. three half-months ; and lastly, any
auspicious event (vn’ddhi) may become the occasion
of the SapiaJikarawa

The full number of &4ddhas necessary for the
Sapiftfiana is sometimes given as sixteen, viz. the
first, then one in each of the twelve months, then two
semestral ones, and lastly the SapinJana. But here
too much variety is allowed, though, if the SapmcZana
takes place before the end of the year, the number
of sixteen &4ddhas has still to be made up

^ One of the differences between the acts before and after the
Sapmc?iharam is noted by Salahhayana : — SapmcZikarawam yavad
n^udarbhai/i. pitr-ikriya Sapi?i(iikara9^M hrdhvam dviguwair vidhivad
bliayet. Gobhiliya Gnhya-shtras, p. 930.

® Gobhiliya Gnhya-sutras, p. 1023.

GWhya-sfftras, ed. Oldenberg, p. 83.

* A pratyabdikam ekoddish^am on the anniversary of the
deceased is mentioned by Gobhiliya, 1 . c. p, loii.

® Gobhillya Gr^hya-sutrasj p. 1039.

® ^Sahkh. Gnhya, p. 83; Gobi). Gnhy a, p. 1024. According
to some authorities the ekoddish^a is called nava, new, during ten
days; navamisra, mixed, for six months; and pura^^a, old, after-
wards. Gobhiliya Grihya-sutras, p. 1020.

Gobhiliya, l.c. p. 1032,

239

VEDA AND VEdInTA.

When the ^SrMdha is offered on account of an
auspicious event, such as a birth or a marriage, the
fathers invoked are not the father, grandfather, and
great-grandfather, who are sometimes called asru-
mukha, with tearful .faces, but the ancestors before
them, and they are called n^ndimukha, or joyful \

Colebrooke^, to whom we owe an excellent de-
scription of what a /Sr^ddha is in modern times,
took evidently the same view. ‘ The first set of
funeral ceremonies,’ he writes, ‘is adapted to effect,
by means of oblations, the re-imbodying of the soul
of the deceased, after burning his corpse. The ap-
parent scope of the second set is to raise his shade
from this world, where it would else, according to
the notions of the Hindus, continue to roam among
demons and evil spirits, up to heaven, and then
deify him, as it were, among the manes of de-
parted ancestors. For this end, a ^Sr^ddha should
regularly be offered to the deceased on the day after
the mourning expires ; twelve other ^r^ddhas singly
to the deceased in twelve successive months ; similar
obsequies at the end of the third fortnight, and also
in the sixth month, and in the twelfth ; and the obla-
tion called Sapiwdana on the first anniversary of his
decease At this Sapindana &4ddha, which is the
last of the ekoddishta srMdhas, four funeral cakes
are offered to the deceased and his three ancestors,

^ Gobhiliya, 1 . c. p. 1047. * Life and Essays, ii. p. 195.

® Colebrooke adds that in most provinces tbe periods for these
sixteen ceremonies, and for the concluding obsequies entitled
Sapiw(fana, are anticipated, and the whole is completed on the
second or third day; after which they are again performed at the
proper times, but in honour of the whole set of progenitors instead
of the deceased singly. It is this which Dr. Donner, in his learned
paper on the PiMdapitriya9na (p. ii), takes as the general rule.

24Q

LBOTUEE VII.

that consecrated to the deceased being divided into
three portions and mixed ’svith the other three cakes.
The portion retained is often offered to the deceased,
and the act of union and fellowship becomes complete h’

When this ^stem of /Sriddhas had once been
started, it seems to have spread very rapidly. We
soon hear of the monthly &4ddha, not only in
memory of one person lately deceased, but as part
of the Yiiriy&gna., and as obligatory, not only on
householders (agnimat), but on other persons also,
and, not only on the three upper castes, but even,
without hymns, on /Siidras % and as to be performed,
not only on the day of New-Moon, but on other days
also whenever there was an opportunity. Gobhila
seems to look upon the Pindapitriya^na, as itself a
/SrMdha % and the commentator holds that, even if
there are no piwdas or cakes, the Brahmans ought
still to be fed. This /Sr^ddha, however, is ^s-
tinguished from the other, the true S^r^ddha, called
Anv4h^rya, which follows it ®, and which is properly
known by the name of P^rvatia ;8r4ddha.

The same difficulties which confront us when we
try to form a clear conception of the character of the
various ancestral ceremonies, were felt by the Br4h-

^ See this subject most exhaustively treated, particularly in its
bearings on the law of inheritance, in Eajkumar Sarv^dhikari’s
Tagore Law Lectures for 1880, p. 93.

2 Gobhiliya Q-nhya-shtras, p. 892. ^L. c. p. 897.

^ See p. 666, and p. ioo8. Gr^^lyak^raA pmdapitriya^wasya
sraddliatvam ^ha.

® Gobhila IV. 4, 3, itarad anv 4 haryam. But the commentators
add, anagner amavasyi-sraddham, nanvdharyam. According to
Gobhila there ought to be the Vaisvadeva offering and the Bali
offering at the end of each PUrvatia-sraddha ; see Gobhiliya Gnhya-
sutras, p. 1005, but no Taiavadeva at an ekoddishiJa ^rMdha,
L c. p. 1020.

TEDA AND VEDIntA.

241

mans themselves, as may be seen from the long dis-
cussions in the commentary on the >SrMdha-kalpa ^
and from the abusive language used by iTandrak^nta
Tark^lahkhra against Eaghunandaana. The question
with them assumes the form of what is pradhiina
(primary) and what is ahga (secondary) in these
sacrifices, and the final result arrived at is that some-
times the offering of cakes is pradh^na, as in the
Pindapitriyay^a, sometimes the feeding of Brahmans
only, as in the Nitya-srMdha, sometimes both, as in
the Sapi^^c?ikara?^a.

We may safely say, therefore, that not a day passed
in the life of the ancient people of India on which they
were not reminded of their ancestors, both near and
distant, and showed their respect for them, partly by
symbolic offerings to the Manes, partly by charitable
gifts to deserving persons, chiefly Brelhmans. These
offertories varied from the simplest, such as milk and
fruits, to the costliest, such as gold and jewels. The
feasts given to those who were invited to officiate
or assist at a ^r^ddha seem in some cases to have
been very sumptuous \ and what is very important,
the eating of meat, which in later times was strictly
forbidden in many sects, must, when the Stitras were
written, have been fully recognised at these feasts,
even to the killing and eating of a cow®.

This shows that these /SrMdhas, though possibly
of later date than the PitWyag'was, belong neverthe-
less to a very early phase of Indian life. And though

^ L. c. pp. 1005— loio ; Mrnajasindhu, p. 270.

® See Burnellj The Law of Partition, p. 31.

^ Kalan tivad gayMambho mtosadanam ^asraddhe nishiddhamj
G-obhilena tu madliyamasli^aMyam v^stukarmam gavalambho
yihita/i, mamsatous ^anvash^akyasrMdhe ; Gobhiliya Grehya-sutraj
ed. iTandrakanta Tarkalankara, Vi^wapti, j), 8.

■■ ^ R ■ ■

242

LECTURE VII.

much, may have been changed in the outward form
of these ancient ancestral sacrifices, their original
solemn character has remained unchanged. Even at
present, when the worship of the ancient Devas is
ridiculed by many who still take part in it, the wor-
ship of the ancestors and the offering of ^SrMdhas
have maintained much of their old sacred character.
They have sometimes been compared to the ‘ commu-
nion ’ in the Christian Church, and it is certainly true
that many natives speak of their funeral and ances-
tral ceremonies with a hushed voice and with real
reverence. They alone seem stiU to impart to their
life on earth a deeper significance and a higher
prospect. I could go even a step further and express
my belief, that the absence of such services for the
dead and of ancestral commemorations is a real loss in
our own religion. Almost every religion recognises
them as tokens of a loving memory offered to a father,
to a mother, or even to a child, and though in many
countries they may have proved a source of supersti-
tion, there runs through them all a deep well of living
human faith that ought never to be allowed to perish.
The early Christian Church had to sanction the ancient
prayers for the Souls of the Departed, and in more
Southern countries the services on All Saints’ and on
All Souls’ Day continue to satisfy a craving of the
human heart which must be satisfied in every religion.
We, in the North, shrink from these open manifesta-
tions of grief, but our hearts know often a deeper bitter-
ness ; nay, there would seem to be a higher truth than
we at first imagine in the belief of the ancients that
the souls of our beloved ones leave us no rest, unless
they are appeased by daily prayers, or, better still, by
daily acts of goodness in remembrance of them b

VEDA AND VEDANTA,

243

But there is still another Beyond that found ex-
pression in the ancient religion of India, Besides
the Bevas or G-ods, and besides the Pitres or Fathers,
there was a third world, without which the ancient
religion of India could not have become what we see
it in the Veda, That third Beyond was what the
poets of the Veda call the Rita,, and which I believe
meant originally no more than ‘the straight line.’
It is applied to the straight line of the sun in its
daily course, to the straight line followed by day and
night, to the straight line that regulates the seasons,
to the straight line which, in spite of many moment-
ary deviations, was discovered to run through the
whole realm of nature. We call that i2^ta, that
straight, direct, or right line, when we apply it in a
more general sense, the Law of Nature ; and when
we apply it to the moral world, we try to express
the same idea again by speaking of the Moral Law,
the law on which our life is founded, the eternal Law
of Eight and Eeason, or, it may be, ‘ that which makes
for righteousness ’ both within us and without

And thus, as a thoughtful look on nature led to
the first perception of bright gods, and in the end of
a Grod of light, as love of our parents was transfigured
into piety and a belief in immortality, a recognition
of the straight lines in the world without, and in
the world within, was raised into the highest faith,
a faith iii a law that underlies everything, a law in
which we may trust, whatever befall, a law which
speaks within us with the divine voice of conscience,
and tells us ‘ this is nta,’ ‘ this is right,’ ‘ this is true,’
whatever the statutes of our ancestors, or even the
voices of our bright gods, may say to the contrary.

* See Hibbert Lectures, new ed. pp. 243-255.

244

LECTUEB VII.

These three Bey ends are the three revelations of
antiquity ■ and it is due almost entirely to the dis-
covery of the Veda that we, in this nineteenth century
of ours, have been allowed to watch again these early
phases of thought and religion, which had passed
away long before the beginnings of other literatures h
In the Veda an ancient city has been laid bare before
our eyes which, in the history of all other religions,
is fiUed up with rubbish, and built over by new
architects. Some of the earliest and most instructive
scenes of our distant childhood have risen once more
above the horizon of our memory which, until thirty
or forty years ago, seemed to have vanished for ever.

Only a few words more to indicate at least how
this religious growth in India contained at the same
time the germs of Indian philosophy. Philosophy in
India is, what it ought to be, not the denial, but the
fulfilment of religion ; it is the highest religion, and
the oldest name of the oldest system of philosophy
in India is Vedanta, that is, the end, the goal, the
highest object of the Veda.

Let us return once more to that ancient theologian
who lived in the fifth century B. C., and who told us
that, even before his time, aU the gods had been dis-
covered to be but three gods, the gods of the Earth,
the gods of the Air, and the gods of the Shy, invoked
under various names. The same writer tells us that
in reality there is but owe God, but he does not call

^ In Chinese we find that the same three aspects of religion and
their intimate relationship were recognised, as, for instance, when
Confucius says to the Prince of Sung : ^Honour the sky (worship
of Devas), reverence the Manes (worship of PiWs) ; if yon do this,
sun and moon will keep their appointed time (jSzta)/ Happel,
Altchinesische Reichsreiigion, p, ii.

VEDA AND VEDAnta.

245

him the Lord, or the Highest God, the Creator, Euler
and Preserver of all things, but he calls him Atman,
THE Self. The one Atman or Self, he says, is praised
in many ways owing to the greatness of the godhead.
And he then goes on to say : ‘ The other gods are
but so many members of the one Atman, Self, and
thus it has been said that the poets compose their
praises according to the multiplicity of the natures
of the beings whom they praise.’

It is true, no doubt, that this is the language of a
philosophical theologian, not of an ancient poet. Yet
these philosophical reflections belong to the fifth cen-
tury before our era, if not to an earlier date ; and
the first germs of such thoughts may be discovered
in some of the Yedic hymns also. I have quoted
already from the hymns such passages as ^ ' They
speak of Mitra, Varuna, Agni ; then he is the heavenly
bird Garutmat ; that which is and is one the poets
call in various ways; they speak of Yama, Agni,
Mitarisvan.’

In another hymn, in which the sun is likened to
a bird, we read : ‘ Wise poets represent by their words
the bird who is one, in many ways^.’

AH this is still tinged with mythology; but there
are other passages from which a purer light beams
upon us, as when one poet asks®:

‘ Who saw him when he was first born, when he
who has no bones bore him who has bones 1 Where
was the breath, the blood, the Self of the world i
Who w'ent to ask this from any that knew itl’

Here, too, the expression is still helpless, but

' Eig-veda I. 164, 46 ; Hibberfc Lectures, p. 31 1.

^ Big-veda X. 114,5; Hibbert Lectures, p. 313.

® Eig-veda 1 . 164, 4.

246

LECTTJEE VII.

tliougli the flesh is weak, the spirit is very willing.
The expression ‘ He who has bones ’ is meant for that
which has assumed consistency and form, the Visible,
as opposed to that which has no hones, no body, no
form, the Invisible, while ‘ breath, blood, and self of
the world ’are but so many attempts at finding
names and concepts for what is by necessity incon-
ceivable, and therefore unnameable.

In the second period of Vedic literature, in the
so-called Br^hmawas, and more particularly in what
is called the Upanishads, or the Vedanta portion,
these thoughts advance to perfect clearness and defi-
niteness. Here the development of religious thought,
which took its beginning in the hymns, attains to
its fulfilment. The circle becomes complete. Instead
of comprehending the One by many names, the many
names are now comprehended to be the One. The
old names are openly discarded ; even such titles as
Pra^4pati, lord of creatures, Yisvakarman, maker of all
things, Dh^tn, creator, are put aside as inadequate.
The name now used is an expression of nothing
but the purest and highest subjectiveness,' — it is
Atman, the Self, far more abstract than our Ego,—
the Self of all things, the Self of all the old mytho-
logical gods — for they were not mere names, but
names intended for something — lastly, the Self in
which each individual self must find rest, must come
to himself, must find his own true Self.

You may remember that I spoke to youin my first
lecture of a boy who insisted on being sacrificed by
his father, and who, when he came to Yama, the
ruler of the departed, was granted three boons, and
who then requested, as his third boon, that Yama
should tell him what became of man after death.

VEDA AND VEDANTA.

247

That dialogue forms part of one of the TJpanishads,
it belongs to the Vedanta, the end of the Veda, the
highest aim of the Veda. I shall read you a few
extracts from it.

Yaina, the King of the Departed, says :

‘Men who are fools, dwelling in ignorance, though
wise in their own sight, and puffed up with vain
knowledge, go . round and round, staggering to and
fro, like blind led by the blind.

‘The future never rises before the eyes of the
careless child, deluded by the delusions of wealth.
T/its is the world, he thinks ; there is no other ; thus
he falls again and again under my sway (the sway
of death).

‘The wise, who by means of meditating on his^e^,
recognises the Old (the old man within) who is diffi-
cult to see, who has entered into darkness, who is
hidden in the cave, who dwells in the abyss, as God,
he indeed leaves joy and sorrow far behind.

‘ That Self, the Knower, is not born, it dies not; it
came from nothing, it never became anything. The
Old man is unborn, from everlasting to everlasting;
he is not killed, though the body be killed.

‘ That Self is smaller than small, greater than
great; hidden in the heart of the creature. A man
who has no more desires and no more griefs, sees the
majesty of the Self by the grace of the creator.

‘ Though sitting still, he walks far ; though lying
down, he goes everywhere. Who save myself is able
to know that God, who rejoices, and rejoices not 1

‘ That Self cannot be gained by the Veda ; nor by
the understanding, nor by much learning. He whom
the Self chooses, by him alone the Self can be gained.

‘ The Self chooses him as his own. But he who

24S

LBCTUEE VII.

has not first turned away from Ms wickedness, who
is not calm and subdued, or whose mind is not at rest,
he can never obtain the Self, even by knowledge.

‘No mortal lives by the breath that goes up and
by the breath that goes down. We live by another,
in whom both repose.

‘ Well then, I shall tell thee this mystery, the
eternal word (Brahman), and what happens to the
Self, after reaching death.

‘Some are born again, as living beings, others
enter into stocks and stones, according to their
work, and according to their knowledge.

‘ But he, the Highest Person, who wakes in us
while we are asleep, shaping one lovely sight after
another, he indeed is called the Light, he is called
Brahman, he alone is called the Immortal. All
worlds are founded on it, and no one goes beyond.
This is that.

‘As the one fire, after it has entered the world,
though one, becomes different according to what it
burns, thus the One Self vdtMn all things, becomes
different, according to whatever it enters, but it
exists also apart.

‘As the sun, the eye of the world, is not con-
taminated by the external impurities seen by the
eye, thus the One Self within aU things is never
contaminated by the sufferings of the world, being
himself apart.

‘ There is one eternal thinker, thinking non-eternal
thoughts; he, though one, fulfils the desires of many.
The wise who perceive Him within their Self, to
them belongs eternal life, eternal peace h

^ Ti Se <pp6irrjiia rov mrevjuixos Kal elprjvr]. See also Euskin,
Sesame, p. 63.

VEDA AND VEDANTA.

249

'Wliatever there is, the whole world, -when gone
> forth (from Brahman), trembles in his breath. That
Brahman is a great terror, like a drawn sword.
Those who know it, become immortal.

‘ He (Brahman) cannot be reached by speech, by
mind, or by the eye. He cannot be apprehended,
except by him who says. He is.

‘ When all desires that dwell in the heart cease,
then the mortal becomes immortal, and obtains
Brahman.

‘When all the fetters of the heart here on earth
are broken, when all that binds ns to this life is
undone, then the mortal becomes immortal : — here
my teaching ends.’

This is what is called Ved&nta, the Veda-end, the
end of the Veda, and this is the religion or the philo-
sophy, whichever you like to call it, that has lived
on from about 500 B.C. to the present day. If the
people of India can be said to have now any system
of religion at all, — apart from their ancestral sacri-
^ fices and their 5 ^r 4 ddhas, and apart from mere caste-
observances,— it is to be found in the Vedanta philo-
sophy, the leading tenets of which are known to some
extent in every village b That great revival of reli-
gion, which was mangurated some fifty years ago by
Bam-Mohun Boy, and is now known as the Brahma-
Sam%, under the leadership of my noble friend
Keshub Ohunder Sen, was chiefly founded on the
Upanishads, and was Ved^ntic in spirit. There is,
in fact, an unbroken continuity between the most
modern and the most ancient phases of Hindu thought,
extending over more than three thousand years.

‘ Major Jacob, Manual of Hindu Pantheism, Preface.

250

LECTUEE VII.

To the present day India acknowledges no higher
authority in matters of religion, ceremonial, customs,
and law than the Foia, and so long as India is India,
nothing will extinguish that ancient spirit of Ve-
d^ntism which is breathed by every Hindu from his
earliest youth, and pervades in various forms the
prayers even of the idolater, the speculations of the
philosopher, and the proverbs of the beggar.

For purely practical reasons therefore, — I mean
for the very practical object of knowing something
of the secret springs which determine the character,
the thoughts and deeds, of the lowest as well as of
the highest amongst the people in India, — an ac-
quaintance with their religion, which is founded on the
Veda, and with their philosophy, which is founded
on the Vedanta, is highly desirable.

It is easy to make light of this, and to ask, as some
statesmen have asked, even in Europe, What has
religion, or what has philosophy, to do w'ith politics 1
In India, in spite of all appearances to the contrary,
and notwithstanding the indifference on religious mat-
ters so often paraded before the world by the Indians
themselves, religion, and philosophy too, are great
powers still. Bead the account that has lately been
published of two native statesmen, the administrators
of two first-class states in Saur^shira, Jun^gadh and
Bhavnagar, Gokulaji and Gaurisankara ’, and you

' Life and Letters of Gokulaji Sampattirama Zitla and liis
views of the Vedanta, by Manassukliarima Suryarama TripatM,
Bombay, i88i.

As a young man Gokulaji, tbe son of a good family, learnt
Persian and Sanskrit. His chief interest in life, in the midst of
a most successful political career, was the ‘ Vedanta.’ A little
insight, we are told, into this knowledge turned his heart to
higher objects, promising him freedom from grief, and blessedness.

VEDA AND VEDInTA.

251

will see whether the Vedanta is still a moral and
a political power in India or not.

But I claim even more for the Vedanta, and I
recommend its study, not only to the Candidates for
the Indian Civil Service, but to all true students of
philosophy. It wDI bring before them a view of life,
different from all other views of life which are placed
before us in. the History of Philosophy. You saw
how behind all the Devas or gods, the authors of the
TJpanishads discovered the Atman or Self Of that
Self they predicated three things only, that it is, that
it perceives, and that it enjoys eternal bliss. All
other predicates were negative : it is not this, it is
not that — it is beyond anything that we can conceive
or name.

But that Self that Highest Self, the Paramdtman,
could be discovered after a severe moral and intel-
lectual discipline only, and those who had not yet
discovered it, were allowed to worship lower gods,
and to employ more poetical names to satisfy their
human wants. Those who knew the other gods to
be but names or persons— personae or masks, in the
true sense of the word — pratlkas, as they call them in
Sanskrit — knew also that those who worshipped these
names or persons, worshipped in truth the Highest

the highest aim of all. This was the turning-point of his inner
life. When the celebrated Vedanti anchorite, Eama Biiva, visited
Juiiagadli, Groknkji became his pupil. When another anchorite,
Paramahansa SaMidaiianda, passed through Junagadii on a pil-
grimage to Girnar, Gokulaji was regularly initiated in the secrets
of the Vedanta. He soon became highly proficient in it, and
through the whole course of his life, whether in power or in dis-
grace, his belief in tlie doctrines of the Vedanta supported him,
and made Iiira, in the opinion of English statesmen, the model of
what a native statesman ought to he.

252

LECTURE VII.

Self, tliough ignorantly. This is a most character-
istic feature in the religious history of India. Even
in the Bhagavadglt^, a rather popular and exoteric
exposition of Vedantic doctrines, the Supreme Lord
or Bhagavat himself is introduced as saying : ‘ Even
those who worship idols, worship me^.’

But that was not all. As behind the names of
Agni, Indra, and Pragr^pati, and behind all the myth-
ology of nature, the ancient sages of India had dis-
covered the Atman— let us call it the objective Self—
they perceived also behind the veil of the body, behind
the senses, behind the mind, and behind our reason
(in fact behind the mythology of the soul, which we
often call psychology), another Atman, or the sub-
jective Self. That Self, too, was to be discovered by
a severe moral and intellectual discipline only, and
those who wished to find it, who wished to know, not
themselves, but their Self, had to cut far deeper than
the senses, or the mind, or the reason, or the ordinary
Ego. All these too were Dev as, bright apparitions —
mere names — yet names meant for something. Much
that was most dear, that had seemed for a time their

^ Professor KiieBen discovers a similar idea in the words placed
in the mouth of Jehovah by the prophet Malachi, i. 14: ^ For
lam a great King, and my name is feared among the heathen.’
‘The reference,’ he says, ^is distinctly to the adoration already offered
to Yah well by the people, whenever they serve their own gods with
true reverence and honest zeal. Even in Deuteronomy the adora-
tion of these other gods by the nations is represented as a dis-
pensation of Yahweli. Malachi goes a step further, and accepts
their worship as a tribute which in reality falls to Yah weh,— to
Him, the Only True. Thus the opposition between Yahweh and
the other gods, and afterwards between the one true God and the
imaginary gods, makes room here for the still higher conception
that the adoration of Yahweh is the essence and the truth of all
religion.* Hibbert Lectures, p. 1 8 1 .

VEDA AND VEdInTA. 263

very self, had to be surrendered, before they could
find the Self of Selves, the Old Man, the Looker-on,
a subject independent of all personality, an existence
independent of all life.

When that point had been reached, then the
highest knowledge began to dawn, the Self within
(the Pratyag^tman) was drawn towards the Highest
Self (the Paramitman), it found its true self in the
Highest Self, and the oneness of the subjective with
the objective Self was recognised as underlying all
reality, as the dim dream of religion, — as the pure
light of philosophy.

This fundamental idea is worked out with syste-
matic completeness in the Vedinta philosophy, and
no one who can appreciate the lessons contained in
Berkeley’s philosophy, will read the IJpanishads and
the Brahma-stitras and their commentaries without
feeling a richer and a wiser man.

I admit that it requires patience, discrimination,
and a certain amount of self-denial before we can
» discover the grains of solid gold in the dark mines of
Eastern philosophy. It is far easier and far more
amusing for shallow critics to point out what is
absurd and ridiculous in the religion and philosophy
of the ancient world than for the earnest student to
discover truth and wisdom under strange disguises.
Some progress however has been made, even during
the short span of life that we can remember. The
Sacred Books of the East are no longer a mere butt for
the invectives of missionaries or the sarcasms of philo-
sophers. They have at last been recognised as his-
torical documents, aye, as the most ancient documents
in the history of the human mind, and as palseonto-
logical records of an evolution that begins to elicit

254

LECTUBE VII.

wider and deeper sympathies than the nebular foraia-
tion of the planet on which we dwell for a season,
or the organic development of that chrysalis which
we call man.

If you think that I exaggerate, let me read you in
conclusion what one of the greatest philosophical
critics— and certainly not a man given to admiring
the thoughts of others — says of the Vedanta, and
more particularly of the TJpanishads. Schopenhauer
writes:

‘In the whole world there is no study so beneficial
and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has
been the solace of my life — ^it will be the solace of my
death h’

I have thus tried, so far as it was possible in
one course of lectures, to give you some idea of
ancient India, of its ancient literature, and, more
particularly, of its ancient religion. My object was,
not merely to place names and facts before you,
these you can find in many published books, but,
if possible, to make you see and feel the general
human interests that are involved in that ancient
chapter of the history of the human race. I wished
that the Veda and its religion and philosophy
should not only seem to you curious or strange, but
that you should feel that there was in them some-
thing that concerns ourselves, something of our own
intellectual growth, some recolleetions, as it were, of
our own childhood, or at least of the childhood of our
own race. I feel convinced that, placed as we are

^ Sacred Books of the East, voLi, The Upanishads, translated by
M, M. ; Introduction, p. Ixi.

VEDA AND VEDANTA.

255

here in this life, we have lessons to learn from the
Veda, quite as important as the lessons we learn at
school from Homer and Virgil, and lessons from the
Vedd.nta quite as instructive as the systems of Plato
or Spinoza.

I do not mean to say that everybody who wishes
to know how the human race came to be what it is,
how language came to be what it is, how religion
came to be what it is, ho-^ manners, customs, laws, and
forms of government came to be what they are, how
we ourselves came to be what w’^e are, must learn
Sanskrit, and must study Vedic Sanskrit. But I do
believe that not to know what a study of Sanskrit,
and particularly a study of the Veda, has already
done for illuminating the darkest passages in the
history of the human mind, of that mind on which
we ourselves are feeding and living, is a misfortune,
or, at all events, a loss, just as I should count it a
loss to have passed through life without knowing
something, however little, of the geological formation
of the earth, or of the sun, and the moon, and the
stars, ^ — and of the thought, or the will, or the law,
that govern their movements.

NOTES AND ILLFSTEATIONS.

NOTE A, p. 9.

OK" THE TEEASUEES EOUNB OH THE OXUS AHB AT MYKENAE*

The treasure found on the north bank of the Oxus in 1877,
and described by General Cunningham in the Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1881, contains coins from Darius
down to Antiochus the Great and Euthydemus of Bactria.
The treasure seems therefore to have been buried on the bank
of the river at the time when Euthydemus marched against
Antiochus, who invaded Bactria in ^2^08 b.c. Euthydemus was
defeated, and the treasure, whether belonging to him or to one
of his nobles, was left untouched till the other day. There
can be no doubt as to the Persian character of many of the
coins, figures, and ornaments discovered on the bank of the
Oxus, and we must suppose therefore that they wwe spoils
carried away from Persia, and kept for a time in Bactria by
the victorious generals of Alexander.

Now of all the hypotheses that have been put forward with
regard to the treasure found at Mykenae, or at least some por-
tion of it, that of Professor Porchhammer has always seemed to
me the most plausible. According to his view, some of the works
of art discovered at Mykenae should be considered as part of the
spoils that fell to Mykenae, as her legitimate share in the booty
of the Persian camp. The Persian, or, if you like, Assyrian
character of some of the things discovered in the tombs of My-
kenae admits of no doubt. The representation of the king in
his chariot, with the charioteer, hunting the stag, is clearly
Assyrian or Persian. The dress of the figures on some of
the seals is decidedly Assyrian or Persian. Now the same
style of art meets us again in the various works of art found
on the Oxus. W the king in his two- wheeled chariot,

standing behind his charioteer, in the silver Daric (PL xii, 6,
7), and in the gold relic (PL xii, 8). We have the peculiar
Persian trowsers, the sarabira (sarS,wiI), in the gold statue

260 notes and illtjstbations.

(PI. xii, i), and again in the silver statuette (PI. xi). Besides
tkis, ws toe (PI. 6) tto “ gold co^epotong te
tie stag i. ave,.W (PI. I7», Mylen»). We toe the
figute of a man in brome (PI. to. 4 ). .■>■! <> “ W “ ^d
(PI. to 1), both lemiading os of the £gote of a mao fonod at
Mykenae (PI. 86), and we have the small pigeon (PI. xv, 3)
wMch might have come off from one of the figures found at

Mykenae (PI. 106, and 179). _

All this would become intelHgible, if we might trace the
treasures found on the Oxus and the treasures found at
Mykenae back to the same source— namely, to booty found
by the Greeks in the Persian camp, and to booty carried oft
by Macedonian generals from the palaces of Darius,

This would not explain the origin of all the treasure found
in the tombs of Mykenae, hut it would give a clue to some
of them, and thus impart a new interest to Dr. Sehliemann s
discoveries. (I have quoted the numbers of the Mykenae
plates from the Collection of the original photographs presented
to me by Dr. Sehliemann.)

NOTE B, p. 25.

ON THE NAME OF THE CAT AND THE CAT’s EYE«

Our domestic cat came to us from. Egypt \ where it had
been tamed by a long process of kindness, or, it may be, of
worship^. In no classical writer, Greek or Roman, do
we find the eat as a domestic animal before the third
century a.d. It is first mentioned by Caesarius, the physician,
brother of Gregory, the theologian of Nazianzus, who died
369 A. D. He speaks of Karrat hbpvfjLoi. About the same time
Palladius (De re rustiea, IV, 9, 4), writes: ‘Contra tali^as pro-
dest catos (cattos) frequenter habere in mediis carduetis
(artichoke-gardens). Mustelas habent plerique mansuetas ;
aliqui foramina earum rubrica et succo agrestis cueumeris
impleverunt. Nonnulli juxta cubilia talpariim plures cavernas
aperiunt, ut illae territae fugiant soils admissu. Plerique
laqueos in aditu earum setis pendentibus ponuntd Helm
supposes that talpa here means mouse. But whether it
means mouse or mole, it is clear that when Palladius wrote
(fourth century a.d.), tame mustelae were still more common
than eats, whether called eati or cattL

Evagrius seholasticus (Hist. Ecel. 17, 23), about 600 a.d.,
speaks of /cirra^ as the common name of alAou/Jo?, here meant,
therefore, for cat. He says : alXovpov mTrav r; mvridam
kiyu,'

And: Isidorus, ' his contemporary, expresses himself in the'
same sense w^hen saying (12, a, 38), fhunc (murionern) vulgtis
mtum a eaptura voeant.’

If we admit, in the absence of evidence to the contrary
effect, that the tame eat came from Egypt to Greece and Italy

^ Wagner, zu Solirebers Saugetbiere, Suppl. ii, p. 556.

See Hehn, Kulturpflanzen nnd HaustMere^ p. 598. It was the mani-
Cidata Enepp., see Hartmann, Zeitschrift far Aegypt. Sprache, 1864, p- u .

® Catta in Martialis, 13, 69, seems to be a kind of bird.

262

NOTES AND ILLUSTBATIONS.

in the fourth century a.d., and that the shrewd little animal
was called by the Romans cUm, everything else becomes

intelligible.

In the ruins of Pompeii, where the bones of horses, dogs,
and goats have been found, no bones of cats have hitherto
been discovered, and the pictures there which were supposed
to be intended for cats, are now proved to be at all events
not pictures of the tame eat^.

In the lang'uage of Roumania no traces exist of the word
c{]dim, probably because at the time when that Romanic
dialect became settled in Dacia, catiis did not yet exist as a
Latin word

Mice were very troublesome no doubt to G reeks and Romans,
but they fought against them, and against lizards and snakes
also, not by cats, but by the ya\kr\ or yok% the and the
aliXovpos or alXovpos. We must not suppose that the names
of these animals were used by the ancients with anything like
zoological accuracy. So much only is certain that, before
the fourth century B.C., none of them, when applied to animals
outside Egypt should be taken for our Fe/is domeeticm^
while Cuvier^ maintains that in Egypt the cat-mummies,
from the most ancient times, are anatomically the same as
our tame cat.

My excellent friend, the late Professor Rolleston, whom I miss
more than I can say, in a paper ‘ On Domestic Cats, ancient and
modern/ published in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology,
1868, pp. 47-61, came to the conclusion that when the ancient
Greeks, such as Aristotle, Aristophanes, &c., spoke of yaXij,
except in Egypt, they generally meant the Mmtela foina^
the white-breasted marten, called also beech-marten or stone-
marten, sometimes the Mustela fuTO) the ferret, and the
Viverra genneUy the genet, but never the polecat, Mmtela
pntorim. What distinguish.es the yaXiJ is that it destroys
mice, snakes, and birds, that it steals the eggs of birds, and

, Helm, l.c,., p.' 402. ,2 Helm, I.C., p. 531.

Herodotus, when speaking of the cat in Egypt, applies the Greek name of
atKovpos to it; in the Sibylline Oracles, Prooem., v. 60, it is called yaXrj;
alorxvvdTjT^i jakds ml KvwSaXa $H0iT0t0WT€S,

^ Aimales du Musdum, An. uci (1802), p. 234; Osseraens fossiles, Hiscours
Preliminah^e, pp. Mi-lxiii, ; Bolleston, 1. c., p. 50.

0 ^ THE NAME ,01' THE CAT AND CAT's EYE, 263

is offensive by its smell. Tbe yaXrj aypia or shares these
qualities, but it is larger and^ what is important, fond of honey.
Neither ferret {Mustela ftiro) nor weasel {Mmtela vulgaru)
win touch honey.

The cat, our Felis domedicus, may in extreme cases be
brought to kill snakes, but it will not steal eggs, nor eat
honey, nor go into holes, like the yaXri or the Mimtela,

The most useful talent of killing mice was shared by yaK%
mmtela^ weasel, and cat; and when we say, eat and mouse, the
Greeks said Mfs* koX yak% the Romans Mm et mustela.

When the Greeks came to know the tame Egyptian cat,
they transferred to it the old names of ya\r\ and aAoupo?.
Most likely Kdrros was the imitation of an Egyptian word,
and when Kallimachos, writing in Egypt (third century B.G.),
speaks of the atXovpos, his commentator was no doubt right
in saying, rov Iblm Xeyop^evop kAttov.

In the Greek fables, down to Babrius, atkovpos need never
be taken for a tame cat, but for a weasel, marten, or possibly
a wild eat

The Romans did not transfer the name of Mustela ^ to the
cat; but by a kind of popular etymology, changed caWm into
cMus^ and these two names, fcdrra and eakis^ found their way
afterwards into nearly all the languages of Europe

In Germany the arrival of the cat ^ must have been suffi-
ciently early to account for the adoption of cats, instead of
weasels (O.H.G. wisula, oi wisale), as drawing the chariot of
the goddess Ereya unless we admit that here too the cat

^ Helm, 1 . c., p. 402, against Keller, Uber die G-escbiclite der griecb. Fabel,
p. 392.

^ Tbe foUowing are tbe different English names, all corresponding to some
kind of Musiela : —

/o^wa ~ wbite-breasted m
JfwsteZa == yellow’breasted marten.

MtMelaputorius ==-polQC$,t.

Mmtela furo^ ferret,

Mustela,

MP'Stela erminea^'stoai.

® O.H.G. cbazza; M.H.Q*. katze; AS, cat; O.N. kbttr; Fr. chat, cbatte ;
Prov. cat, cata; Span, gato, gata ; Ital. gatto, gatta ; Mod, Gr. -y^ra, /carfi;
Ir. cat ; Gael, cat ; Welsh c^th; Rnss. kot”, koska ; Pol. kot, kotka ; Bob. kot,
kotb ; Litb. katd; Finn, katti ; Dapp. katto ; Turk, kedy ; Arm. citto.

^ Hehn, l.c., p. 405. ® Grimm, Deutsche Mytbologie, p. 634.

264

NOTES AND ILLTISTBATIONS.

intended was originally the wild-cat, particularly as its place
is often taken hy the gold-bristled boar and the falcon

We now come to the question, whether the eat was known
at an early time in India. The two principal words in
Sanskrit for cat are mfe^ara and vi^ala.

M^r^ara means the cleaner, the cat being well known for
its cleanliness. The wild- cat is called ara^ya-m^ara, the
forest-cat (Pawfotantra, p. 165, 1. 14).

Manu (XIj 131) places mar^ara by the side of the nabula,
the ichneumon, and in the Pai?y?:atantra (p. no, I 2^3) we read
that there is a natural ^enmity between cats and dogs (sara-
meya-maryara^eam) and between ichneumons and serpents
(nakula-sarpa^^am). This instinctive enmity between certain
animals was so well known that Tmlni gave a rule (II, 4, 9)
according to which compounds may be formed of the names
of such animals. But among these compounds we find in
Pamni neither cat and dog, nor cat and mouse. Pacini knew
the wild-eat, the vk/ala (VI, 2, 72)^ but not the tame cat, the
enemy of dogs and mice. Nay, even Pata%ali, the author of
the Mahabhashya, does not yet mention the cat among the
animals exhibiting an instinctive hatred of other animals (II,
4, 9). He gives in the Mahabhashya instances (II, 4, 12, 2) of
such instinctive enmities, as kakolukam, crows and owls,
i'vamgMam, dogs and jackals (even rama^a-brahma^am,
mendicants and Brahmans), but not cat and dog, or cat and
mouse. The later Ka^ika, on the contrary, gives mS^r^ara-
mushakam, eat and mouse, as the very first instance of II, 4, 9.

Again (IV, 2^ 104), the animals mentioned by Pata%ali for
a similar purpose are ahi-nakulikM, serpents and ichneumons,
and wfi.varahik§,i, dogs and boars, but not cat and dog, nor
cat and mouse.

In the Chinese translation of the story of Bedd Gelert,
made by Pa Hian about 412^ a.d., the animals that hate each
other instinctively are the snake and the nakula, the little
bird and the hawk, the Nrama^a and Brahmam, the step-
mother and the child of another wife
A strong confirmation of the comparatively late date of the

^ Badolph, Die Gottergestalt der Frigg, 1875, p. 37.

^ See S. Beal, in the Academy^ 18S2, p. 331.

ON THE NAME OF THE ' CAT AND CAT’s EYE. 265

eat, as tlie enemy of mice^ in India is furnished hy the
Pa?U"atantra. Here we read (V, 109)^, mouse, tliougli horn
in the house, must he killed^ because it does mischief. A cat
is asked for from elsewhere, and paid for, because it is useful/

But in the Arabic translation (Guides Codd. P. and ¥.),
instead of the cat we find the falcon ; in the Direetoritm the
nisiis, or sparrow-hawk ; in the Stephanites the and in
the old Spanish translation, the azor.

It might have been supposed at first that as the cat
occurred in the Pas^ly^atantra, the Arabic translation had
changed the cat into a falcon. But no. The old Syriac version,
which is older than our Pauiiatantra, has : ^ Mice, though bred
in the house, are killed on account of their mischievousness,
but falcons are caught on account of tbeir usefulness, and
carried on the band.’

This leaves no doubt that in the original the simile was
taken from the mice and the falcon, and that the somewhat
lame simile of the eat and the mice is of later date.

The second name for cat in Sanskrit is vit/ala or bi^Ma. In
the Vayasaneyi-sai^hita (XXIV, 31) vnshada^/^a is explained
by vi(iala, and kept quite distinct from nakula (XXIV, 32),
which occurs in the Atharva-veda (IV, 139, 5) as an animal
hostile to serpents. Manu also (XI, 159) clearly distinguishes
vi^Ela from nakula, and his vana-vi#ila is most likely meant
for the wild-cat. Pa^zmi must have known the word, for in
XVI, 2, 72 he gives a rule for the accent of the compound
bhiksha-vi^ala.

It is difficult to analyse this word. I thought at first that
it might be connected with vidala (bidala, in the Ait. Ar. Ill,
1 , 2, 6) which means cut in half, split in the middle, which
would be a very appropriate term for a cat’s eye. But this
would leave the lingual d unaccounted for. In the TJ^^adi-
shtras (1, 117) it is derived from yuI, to shout, with tlie suffix
ala. This suffix shows a certain analogy with aliya in mar-
^rdiya, another name for cat.

The question then arises, whether from vi^Jala a derivative
vaiJalya might have been formed, and whether this word

^ Selected Essa,ys, i, p. 556 *

266

NOTES AND ILLUSTBATIONS.

could have given rise to the Greek atkovpos or aliXovpo^s in-
stead of atoXo^ and oupci, as commonly supposed. We should
have to admit a parallel form vaiiarya, and then a transition
ofoppo^into ovposs allowing at the same time the possibility
that the word came into Greek, not as a common Aryan word^
but as a foreign name for a foreign animal.

And this suggests a new question. Vai^Mrya and vaidurya,
the very form that would best correspond to the Greek atXovpos^
means in Sanskrit the cat’s eye. The eat is called maMvaiJhr-
yaloiana, i. e. having eyes like the Vair/uiya jewel It is
true that so ancient a grammarian as Pamni {IV, 3, 84) derives
vahZurya from vidilra, ‘ very distant,’ and that accordingly it is
often spelt with a dental d. But this seems an after-
thought. The transition of vairZarya into vairZurya is not
impossible, even in Sanskrit, if we remember such parallel
forms as ddra and daviyas, sthula, sthavJyas, &c. If then
vaif^/drya was connected with vi Jala, cat, and meant originally
a cat’s eye, it is strange, to say no more, that the Prakrit form
veluriya should, as Pott pointed out, appear in Greek as
pvXXoSi again a foreign name for a foreign jewel, i, e. for the
beryl. It is true no doubt that, scientifically speaking, the
cat’s eye and the beryl differ, but in some cases, as Professor
Fischer informs me, the colour of the beryl is like that of the
eyes of a eat; though it never has that peculiar waving lustre
which is perceived in all real eat’s-eye minerals, when they
have been cut convexly .

VaiJfirya is also used as the name of the country or the
mountain where the vaiJurya mineral is found. At the time
of Varahamihira(Bnhat-samhita, XIV, 14), in the sixth century,
the mines of beryl stone were said to be in the South of India.
But in the commentary on the Umdi-sutras (II, %o) we hear
of Vidflira as the name of Balavaya, being either a mountain
OF a town, from whence the best VaiJurya stones are said to
come. In the commentary on Pamni also (VI, 77) this
B§,lavS,ya is mentioned as the name of a mountain.

It was objected by Katyayana that Pa^ni’s rule (P4?^. IV,
3, 84), according to which vaijurya is formed from Viddra,
must be wrong, because the VaiJdrya jewel does not come
from Vidura, but from Balavdya, and is only cut or polished

OK THE KAME OF THE. CAT AKB GAT's EYE. 28T

atVicMra. We are not concerned herewith the manner in
> which Pata%ali tries to solve this dilemma, but with the
dilemma itself, that is, with the fact that in Katyajana’s, or,
at all events, in Pata%ali’s time Vai^urya stones were known
to come from the mountain BMav%a, not from Vidura. We
know nothing else about this Balavaya mountain, but Bur-
nouf, by a very bold combination, tried many years ago to
identify the name of the Bolor or Balur-tagli ^ with the Vai-
f/urya mountain, the mountain supplying the Vai^hlrya jewels.
This would indicate new points of contact between the East
and the West, which however it seems premature to follow up.
Even the coincidences and similarities touched upon in this note
are by no means firmly established, and I have only put them
together because, if we should come to the eoiielusion that
there is no historical relationship between vi^/jila, vaii^Mrya,
aikovposj ^rjpvkkos, and Belur-tagli^, we should, at all events,
have learnt the useful lesson that the chapter of accidents is
sometimes larger than we suppose.

Page 33. Professor Cowell calls my attention to the fact
that Sir William Jones was thirty-seven years of age when he
sailed for India, and that he received the honour of knight-
hood in March 1783, on his appointment as Judge of the
Supreme Court of Judicature at Port William, at Bengal.
See ‘Works of Sir William Jones, with the Life of the Author,
by Lord Teignmouth,’ voL i, p. 403.

^ Professor Weber adopts Pott’s etymology of ^^/jvAXos, and BiirnourB deri-
vation of Belur-tagh from vaic^firya (see Omina and Portenta, p. 326), though
he thinks it might be inverted. At a later time (Ind. Stud, xiii, 370) he
prefers to think of Balavaya as connected with Belur-tagh. See also, Die
Indischen Mineralien, von Br, Ei. Garbe, p. 85.

® The Bolor, the very existence of which had been denied, has lately been
re-established as the real name of a real mountain by Eobert Shaw. He found
that the name was applied by the Eirghis to the district of Itltral. General
Cunningham states that the same name, Palor, Balors, Balornts, is applied
^ to the city of Iskardo. See Le Mus^on, vol. i, p. 358. Hiouen-thsang also

(h 273) describes the kingdom of Pololo (Bolor) as rich in precious metals.

NOTE C, p. 49.

ON VILLAGE ESTATES.

As Colonel Sleeman’s ^ Rambles of an Indian Official * are
not easily accessible, I give some more extracts from them
bearing on village communities as he knew them. In the
tenth chapter of the first volume he writes : —

‘Nine-tenths of the immediate cultivators of the soil in
India are little farmers, who hold a lease for one or more
years, as the ease may be, of their lands, which they cultivate
with their own stock. One of these cultivators, with a good
plough and bullocks, and a good character, can always get
good lands on moderate terms from holders of villages. Those
cultivators are, I think, the best who learn to depend upon
their stock and character for favourable terms, hold themselves
free to change their holdings when their leases expire, and
pretend not to any hereditary right of property in the soil.
The lands are, I think, best cultivated, and the society best
constituted in India, when the holders of Ustates of Villages
have a feeling of permanent interest in them, an assurance
of an hereditary right of property which is liable only to
the payment of a moderate government demand, descends
undivided by the law of primogeniture, and is unaffected
by the common law, which prescribes the equal subdivision
among children of landed as well as other private property
among the Hindus and Mohammedans, and where the im-
mediate cultivators hold the lands they till by no other law
than of common specific contract.

‘ When I speak of villages, I mean the holders of lands that
belong to villages. The whole face of India is parcelled out
into estates of villages. The village communities are com-
posed of those who hold and cultivate the land, the established
village-servants priest blacksmith carpenter ^ aecount-

^ Grilma-blmta.

^ Gril-ma-ya^in or ^r^ina-y%aka, a despised office.

^ Gr^ma-karmiira. ^ Grilma-taksha, V, 4, 95.

ON VILLAGE ESTATES.

269

ant\ waslierman^ (whose wife is ex officio the midwife of
the little Tillage community), potter‘d, watchman barber^,
shoemaker,, etc. In some parts of Central and Southern
India, the Garpugree® who charms away hail-storms from
the crops, and the Bhoomka'^ who charms away tigers from
the people and their cattle, are added to the number of
village-servants. To these may be added the little banker
or agricultural capitalist, the shopkeeper, the brazier, the
confectioner, the iron -monger, the weaver, the dyer, the
astronomer, or astrologer ® who points out to the people the
lucky day for every earthly undertaking, and the prescribed
times for all religious ceremonies and observances^.

^ In some villages the whole of the lands are parcelled out
among cultivating proprietors, and are liable to eternal sub-
division by the law of inheritance, which gives to each one
the same share.

^ In others, the whole of the lands are parcelled out among

^ Gr^ma-lekhaka. ^ Grama-ra^aka.

® Gr^ma-kulala, 2, 62, com.

^ Gr^ma-pHla.

® Gr^ma-n^pita, Pa», VI, 2, 62, com. ; also called gramawi/^,.

® Mr. Platts, whom I consulted on these names, writes to me : ' I have now
no doubt that the word is gar-pagari (the accent being on pag) ; and that
its correct form is or rather the ojj of which is changed to

rfj and the "ST r to r ; both of which are common changes in the Dakkhini.

* The etymology will therefore be :

‘gar®s=gar = S. pagar°==pakar° (root of p aka rna) s=: Praknt

tr^(^)^ from Sanskrit within. i =

^ Bhumika. ® Gnlma-^yotisha.

® Some other village officials mentioned in Sanskrit works are : —

Gr^ma-goduh, the man who milks the cows ; Paw. Ga?iapu^ 7 <a, 218.

GrS.ma-gh^tin, the village butcher, g^amasthabahulokapoBha^^artham pasu-
ghltaka^,

Gr^ma-preshya, the village messenger, rather despised.

Gr^ma-ghoshin, the village cryer.

According to NUgesa (Pan. I, i, 48, ed. Ballantyne, p. 559) the five most
common artisans in a village are the kulala, potter, karmara, smith, vardhaki,
carpenter, napita, barber, and rapaka, washerman or dyer. A village possessing
them is called grama^ panitakaruki. See Kielhorn, Katy%ana and Patan-
jali, p. 52, note: ‘ Avarata -4 can only mean “less in number.” One calls
a village a Brahman-village, although some of its inhabitants belong to other
castes, because the number of Brahmans who live in it is greater than the
number of inhabitants belonging to other castes/

270

IfOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS*

cultivators, who hold them on a specific lease for limited pe-
riods, from a proprietor who holds the whole collectively under
government, at a rate of rent fixed either permanently or for
limited periods.

‘ These are the two extremes. There are but few villages in
which all the cultivators are considered as proprietors, at least
but few in our Nerbudda territories ; and these will almost
invariably be found of a caste of Brahmans or a caste of
Eajputs, descended from a common ancestor, to whom the
estate was originally given in rent-free tenure,' or at a quit
rent, by the existing government, either for his prayers as a
priest, or his services as a soldier. Subsequent governments,
which resumed unceremoniously the estates of others, were
deterred from resuming these by a dread of the curses of the
one ^ and the swords of the others.

^ Such communities of cultivating proprietors are of two
kinds, those among whom the lands are parcelled out, each
member holding his share as a distinct estate, and being in-
dividually responsible for the payment of the share of the
government demand assessed upon it ; and those among whom
the lands are not parcelled out, but the profits divided as
among co-partners of an estate held jointly. They, in either
case, nominate one of their members to collect and pay the
government demand ; or government appoints a man for this
duty, either as a salaried servant, or as a lessee, with authority
to levy from the cultivating proprietors a certain sum over
and above what is demandable from him.

fThe communities in which the cultivators are considered
merely as leaseholders, are far more numerous — indeed the
greater part of the village communities in this part of India
are of this description ; and where the communities are of
a mixed character, the cultivating proprietors are considered
to have merely a right of occupancy, and are liable to have
their lands assessed at the same rate as others holding the
same sort of lands, and often pay a higher rate with which
others are not encumbered.

^But this is not general : it is as much the interest of the

» See Tasisiiaa XVII, 86.

ON VILLAGE ESTATES.

271

proprietor to have good cultivating tenants, as it is of the
tenants to have good proprietors ; and it is felt to be the in-
terest of both to adjust their terms amicablj among them-
selves without a reference to a third and superior party,
which is always costly and commonly ruinous.’

For more minute details of the systems of land tenure in
these village estates, see Sir H. Maine’s ^ Village Communities
in the East an d W est ; Six Lectures delivered at Oxford/ 1871,

Page 55, 1 . 19, add ; The earliest witness is Su-we, a relative
of Pan-chen, king of Siam, who between 0,22^ and 22 ^ a.d.
sailed round the whole of India, till he reached the mouth of
the Indus, and then explored the country. After his return
to Siam, he received four Yueh-chi horses, sent by a king
of India as a present to the king of Siam and his ambassador.
At the time when these horses arrived in Siam (it took them
four years to travel there), there was staying at the Court of
Siam an ambassador of the emperor of China, Khang-thai,
and this is the account he received of the kingdom of India :

‘ It is a kingdom in which the religion of Buddha flourishes.
The inhabitants are straightforward, and honest, and the soil
is very fertile. The king is called Meu-lun, and his capital is
surrounded by walls,’ &c. This was in about 231 a.d. In
60 5 we hear again of the emperor Yang-ti sending an am-
bassador, Pei-tu, to India, and this is what among other things
he points out as peculiar to the Hindus: ‘They believe in
solemn oaths.’ (See Stanislas Julien, Journal Asiatique, 1847,
Aotit, pp. 98, 105.)

Page 56, L 9, add: Again in the thirteenth century, Sliems-
ed-din Abu Abdallah quotes the following judgment of Bedi
ezr Zenan : ‘ The Indians are innumerable, like grains of sand,
free from all deceit and violence. They fear neither death
nor life.’ (See Mehren, Manuel de la Cosmographie du moyen
age, traduetion de Pouvrage de Shems-ed-din Abou Abdallah
de Damas, Paris, Leroux, 1874, p. 391.)

NOTE D, p. 70-

TEXTS ON VENIAL UNTKUTHS.

Gautama V, :Z 4 : Kruddha hrish^a, bhitartalubdlia bala stlm™
vira milMa> mattonmattavakyany anritany apatakani.
Vasisli^J/^a XVI^ 35 ; MaMbb. VIII, 343^-
Vivabakale ratisamprayog'C
prai^'^atyaye sarvadhanapabare
viprasya Mrtbe by mritsim vadeta^
pa?z>ianfitany abur apatakani.

If a man speak an untruth at the time of marriage, during
dalliance, when bis life is in danger, or the loss of his whole
property (is threatened), and also for the sake of a Brahmam,
it has been declared that these five untruths are not mortal
sins.

Gautama XXIII, ag : Vivahamaithunanarmartasa??2yogeshv
adosham eke ’nntam.

Some declare that an untruth spoken at the time of mar-
riage, during dalliance, in jest or while one suffers severe
pain, is venial.

Vish^mVIII, 15 : YdimixAm yatra badhas tatranntena.

Whenever the death of a member of any of the four castes
(would be occasioned by true evidence, they are free from blame)
if they give false evidence.

Mann VIII, 1 03 ; Tadvadan dharmato ’rtheshii ^i,nann apy-
anyatha nara/^,

Na svarga^ %avate lokM daivi?i»^ va&i% vadanti tarn.

Mdravifchatravipr^^^w yatrartoktau bhaved badha^

Tatra vaktavyam anntai^ tad dhi satyad vi^ishyate.

In some cases a giver of false evidence from a pious motive,
even though he know the truths shall not lose a seat in
heaven ; such evidence wise men call the speech of the gods.

Whenever the death of a man, either of the servile, the
commercial, the militarv. or the sacerdotal class, would be

TEXTS ON YENIAXi ENTBUTHS.

273

occasioned by true evidence, falsehood may be spoken ; it is
even preferable to truth.

Comm. Tatha Gautama;?, N^nfitavadane dosho ya^^iva-
wmi X^et tadadhina^g, na tu papiyaso ^ivanam iti.

Maliabh. I, 341 % : Na narmayukta??^ vaXalla^/^ hinasti
Na strishu rayan na vivahakale,

Pramtyaye sarvadhanapahare
Pa^IXanrit^ny ahur apatakani.

Mahabh. Ill, 13844: Pra^^antike vivMie Xa vaktavyam
aiifitam bhavet,

Anritena bhavet satya??^ satyenaivanfitam bhavet.

Mahabh. VII, 8741 : Sa bhavms tratu no dro?nU, satyay
yyayo ’iifitam vaXaX,

Aiifitam yivitasyarthe vadan na spri^syate ’nritaiX.

Kaminishh vivaheshu g'avam bhakte tathaiva Xa

Brahma wM)hyiipapattau Xa aiinte nasti patakam.

Mann (IV, .138) quotes what he calls a primeval rule,
namely, ‘ Say what is true and say what is pleasant, but do
not say what is true and unpleasant, nor what is pleasant
and not triie.'^

In the Vish?m-purd?2a (Wilson’s translation, p. 312) the same
mixed lesson of truthfulness and worldly wisdom is repeated :

‘ Let a wise man ever speak the truth when it is agreeable, and
when the truth would inflict pain let him hold his peace. Let
him not utter that which, though acceptable, would be detri-
mental; for it were better to speak that which would be
salutary, although it should give exceeding offence. A con-
siderate man will always cultivate, in act, thought, and speech,
that which is good for living beings, both in this world and
in, the next/

Page 81, note r. That the Mahabharata was publicly read
in the seventh century a. n., we learn from Ba^a; see Journal
of Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay, voL x, p. 87, note.

NOTEE;p.86 .

THE YUEH-CHI

The conquests of Alexander, though thef seem to have left
a veiy slight impression in India, so much so that the very
name of Alexander is never mentioned in Sanskrit literature,
supplied the first impulse to great commotions in Asia,
which at last reacted most powerfully and fatally on India.
The kingdoms of Bactria, Syria, and Egypt were essentially
the outcome of Alexander's Oriental policy. Egypt and Syria,
we know, fell after a time a prey to Roman conquest. But
the Greek kingdom of Bactria came in contact with a different
class of enemies, and was destroyed by the Toch^ri (the
Ta-hia in Chinese^}, a Turanian race, who, after having made
themselves masters of that position, advanced westward
against the kingdom of Parthia, founded ^^50 b.c. by Arsaees I,
Artabanus, the king of Parthia, fell fighting against the
Tochari, but his son Mithradates II (i'a4 b.c.) repelled their
inroads, and thereby drove an enormous wave of half-nomad
warriors towards Kd^bul, and thence to India.

Chang Kien, who was sent by the Emperor Wu-ti as am-
bassador to the Yueh-ehi, tells us that these Yueh-chi (also
called Yueh-ti, the ’Eqf>daXtrat of Greeks) had been driven at
that time out of their old seats by the Hiung-nu, and had
poured into Bactria, then occupied by the Tochari (To^apoi
of Strabo), and called Ta-hia, or Tocharia (now Tokharistan).

Chang Kien, who was sent by the Emperor Wu-ti to induce
the Yueh-chi to make war against the Pliung-nu, met with
them on the banks of the Tu-kwai-shui (Surkhab), their

^ The Adat are supposed to appear again as Dacians, and Grimm would have
wished to connect them with D^navas, evil spirits, and in tbe end with
the Banes. All this is as yet mere vapour, though there may be some light
behind it. Most of these identifications rest on little more than similarity of
sound. ■ ' '

THE YUEH-CHI.

275

northern boundary being* the Oxus (Kwai-slini)« This must
have been between the years b.c., though rather

towards the end of that time. The Yueh-ehi are described
as of a pink and white complexion, and as accustomed to shoot
from horse-back. They were then 7000 li north of India.
Their country was bounded on the South by the districts
lately conquered by the Ta-hia (Tochari) and on the West
by Ansik, i. e. Parthia. They were herdsmen and nomads,
and resembled the Hiung-nu in manners and customs.
Driven ont of their seats by the Hiung-nu, they fell on the
Tochari from the West, and defeated them^. They then
followed the course of the Surkhab, and founded a royal
residence on its Northern bank. Some of them took refuge
in Little Tibet (Kbiang or Kanka), and were called the Lesser
Yuelvchi.

To the South-east of the Tochari lay Shen-tuh, i. e. India,
and when Chang Kien was with the Tochari, he saw articles
of trade brought to their country from India. India was
reckoned to be some thousand li to the South-east of Ta-hia
(Bactria). The country was said to he cultivated, and the
manners and customs of its inhabitants were very similar to
those of the Toeh§,ri. The climate was damp and hot, and the
people made use of elephants in war. It lay near a great
river^.

So far our information about the Yueh-chi and their distant
relation to India rests on Sze-ma Tsien, who was born in
163 B.C.^

If now we proceed to the Annals of the After (or Eastern)
Han Dynasty (a.b. or to the Annals of the Sui

Dynasty (a.d. 589-618), we find some more information
about the same subject, for which I am chiefly indebted to
Professor Legge^.

The Annals of the After Han Dynasty were written down

^ Their capital was Lam-sbi-^cengj Aapa^a. Kiagsmill, Intercourse of China
with Eastern Turkestan, Journal of the Boyal Asiatic Society, 1882, p. 82, note.

^ North-Eastern India is called Ttn-y£it, apparently Sthanesvara ; Kingsmill
l.c., p. 83, note.

® KingsmiU, 1. c., p. 74-

* Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, yoL ii, p. 352 seq.

276

ISrOTES AND ILLUSTRATIOHS.

by Han Y6, wlio was killed in 445 a.d., and we there find
the following account of Tien-ehu, that is, India. It is said
to be called also Ken-toku or Shin-doku. Its situation

is described as many thousand li South-east of the Yiieh-chi.
The customs of the people are said to be the same as those of
the Yiieh-ehi. Its climate is damp and hot. The country is
near to the great rivers. The people fight riding on elephants,
and they are weaker than the Yueh-chi. They practise the
religion of Puto, i. e. Buddha, and refrain from killing, and
this forms their custom.

The whole region extends from a state of the Yiieh-clii
called Kofu, i, e. Kabul, to the West Sea in a South-western
direction, and it reaches Eastward another state called Han-ld.

Then the Han annalist^ speaking of the time of that
Dynasty, 25-1^20 A. n., continues :

There are in Ken-toku separate castles which are counted
by hundreds, and in each castle there is a chiefs.

There are also separate states which are counted by tens^l
and in each state there is a King. Although there is a little
difference, yet all of them are called Ken-toku or Shin-doku,

At that time (under the Eastern Han Dynasty) they all
belonged to the Yueh-chi, who had killed the kings, and
appointed generals to govern the people.

This seems to have happened about one hundred years
after Chang Kien’s embassy, or 20 b.c. At that time the
five tribes of the Yueh-chi were united under Kieou-tsieu-kio,
who then assumed the title of Kouei-shuang (it may be
Gushan or Koppapos of the coins ^). He conquered the Kings
of Pota and Kipin, and then invaded Tien-chu or India.

The products of the country are elephants, rhinoceros, tor-
toise-shell, gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin. The people
have rare things, whicli are found in the country of Tai Chin

^ Tins agrees well witb the fecription of tlje royal castles or fortresses given
in the early Law-books or Bharma-sUtraa,

The Basagraniis.of PMni..

® Oldenberg, ITeber der Latirung der altera indiachenMiinz- und Inscliriften-
reilien, p. 397. Thonias, Journal of the Eoyal Asiatic Society, 1877, p. 18, gives
a coin of HeraoSj Sakakorratios, where the expression *H/>dov rvpavvovpros makes

THE YUEH-CHI.

277

or Great Chin, because they have communication with those
of the Great Chin westward. There are also among the
products of India fine linen, good rugs or mats made of wool
and fur, several kinds of incense, stone honey, black pepper,
ginger, and black salt.

" In the time of the Emperor Hwa (89-105) they often sent
messengers to China and presented something, as if it were
their tribute. But afterwards those of the Western regions
rebelled (against the Emperor of China), and interrupted their
communication, until the second year of the period Yen-hsi
(159) in the reign of the Emperor Kwan (147-167).

In the fourth year of the same period (161) the foreign
people incessantly came from outside of the wall of a castle
on the border at a place called Jitsu-nan.

This is an independent and, if we make allowance for
Chinese modes of thought and expression, a perfectly trust-
worthy account of the state of things in India from the first
century before to about the third century after Christ.

NOTE F, p. 89.

LETTBES ON BUDDHISM.

A Conference on Buddhism was held in June 1881:^ at Sion
College^ to discuss the real or apparent coincidences between
the religions of Buddha and Christ. Being unable to assist in
person^ I addressed the following letters to the Seeretaiy,
which were read at the meeting and published afterwards.

I.

‘I regret that it is quite -out of my power to be present at
the discussion on Thursday. May I venture^ however, to say
that a discussion on Buddhism in general seems to me almost
an impossibility. The name of Buddhism is applied to reli-
gious opinions not only of the most varying, but of a
decidedly opposite character held by people on the highest
and the lowest stages of civilisation, divided into endless
sects, nay, founded on two distinct codes of canonical writings.
I hardly know any proposition that could be made with regard
to Buddhism in general. Divide et impera ! is the only way
that can lead to a mutual understanding on the fundamental
principles of Buddba’s doctrine, and considering the special
qualifications of those who will address your meeting, I should
think that an account of what Buddhism is at the present
moment in Ceylon, both with the learned and unlearned
classes, would be far more interesting and useful than a
general discussion on Buddhism. I shall mention the subject
to two Buddhist priests who have been reading Sanskrit with
me for several years, but their Buddhism is so different from
the Buddhism now practised in Ceylon that they would
hardly recognise it as their own religion.

‘ Excuse these hurried remarks, and believe me,

‘ Yours faithfully,

LBTTBES OH BUDDHISM*

279

tlie more sorry tliat I am unable to attend in person, not tliot
> I have much faith in puhlio discussions, it being so very difii-
cult to be quite frank and truthful when you are listened to
by hundreds of people, and when success and applause seem,
for the moment more important than the establishment of
facts and the recognition of truth. But I admire the fearless
spirit in which you invite public discussion on a subject which
has become a kind of bugbear to so many j)eopIe. I, fully
sympathise with you, and I think I can say of myself that
I have all my life worked in the same spirit that speaks from
your letter, so much so that if any of your friends could prove
to me what they seem to have said to you, namely, ‘ that
* Christianity was hut an inferior copy of a greater original / 1
should bow and accept the greater original. That there are
startling coincidences between Buddhism and Ghristianity
cannot be denied, and it must likewise be admitted that Bud-
dhism existed at least 400 years before Christianity. I go even
further, and should feel extremely grateful if anybody would
point out to me the historical channels through which Bud-
dhism had influenced early Christianity. I have been looking
for such channels all my life, but hitherto I have found none.
What I have found is that for some of the most startling
coincidences there are historical antecedents on both sides,
and if we once know those antecedents, the coincidences be-
come far less startling. If I do find in certain Buddhist
works doctrines identically the same as in Christianity, so far
from being frightened, I feel delighted, for surely truth is not
the less true because it is believed by the majority of the
'human race.

I believe we have made some progress during the last thirty
years. I still remember the time when all heathen religions
were looked upon as the work of the Devil. We know now
that they are stages in a growth, and in a growth not deter-
mined by an accidental environment only, but by an original
purpose, a purpose to be realised in the history of the human
race as a whole. Even missionaries have begun to approaeli
the heathen in a new and better spirit. They look for what
may safely be preserved in the religion of their pupils, and on
that common ground they try to erect a purer faith and a

280

NOTES AND . ILLUSTRATIONS.

better : worship, instead of attempting to destroy the sacred
foundations of religion which, I believe, exist, or at least
existed, in every human heart. See on this subject the wise
remarks of the Bishop of Lahore (French), as quoted in the
July 23, 1882.

^ I send you a report which I have just issued on The Sacred
Books of the East, translated by various Oriental scholars,
and edited by myself. My object in publishing these transla-
tions is exactly the same as yours, namely, to give to those
who are interested in the history of- religion, facts, instead of
theories.

' I had spent nearly the whole of my life in publishing the
text and commentary of one of the Sacred Books of the East,
the Veda, or more correctly the Rig-veda, the most ancient
monument of Eastern religion, the root of all the later reli-
gious growth of India, in a certain sense, the key also to
Buddhism, inasmuch as that religion starts with a denial of
the sacred authority of the Veda. The publication of that
w'ork has produced a complete revolution, not only in our own
views of the origin and growth of ancient religion, but in the
religious life of the Hindus themselves, and this not so much
on the surface as in its deepest foundations.

‘When I saw how little there was left to me of active life, I
invited the eo-operation of my friends and colleagues to make,
at all events, a beginning in the publication, of trustworthy
translations of all the more important among the Sacred
Books of the East, From the enclosed report you will see
that Buddhism in its various phases has received its full share
of attention, and that some of its canonical books may now
be studied by those who do not read Sanskrit, PMi, or
Chinese,

‘ Yours very faithfully, ;

■ . ‘ F. Max MilLniE.'

NOTE G, p. 93,

THE RENAISSANCE OF SANSKRIT LITEEATUIili
Samvat Era,

One of the chief objections that will 110 doubt be raised
against my belief in a literary interregnum, lasting from the
first century b.c. to at least the third century a. n,, is the fiimoiis
Samvat era of 56 b, c.^, dating from what used to be called the
Augustan age of India^, the glorious reign of VihraniMitya, the
destroyer of the &kas and other MleM/ms, and the great patron
of Sanskrit literature, at whose court the Nine Gems, Dluin-
Tantari, Kshapa^aka, Amarasi??^ha, &ihku, VetaL';iblui?J/a, Gha&-
karpara, Kfilidasa, Varahamihira, and Vararui:i were supposed
to have flourished^.

It has long been an open secret, however, among all who
are interested in Indian coins and inscriptions, that there is
absolutely no documentary evidence whatever for the existence
of such a king VikramMitya in the first century b.o. But the
puzzle has always been, how the belief in such a king, living
in the first century b. c., and in all his wonderful achievements,
could have arisen, and this puzzle has at last been solved, I
believe, by what I may he allowed to call the architectonical
genius of Mr. Fergusson^.

^ I spell Sam vat instead of Sawvat, because it bas become almost an Anglo-
Indian word, and I use 56 B. c. throughout as its initial year, though it begins
in 57. See Indian Antiquary, xi, p. 371.

“ These names are quoted from, the (?yotirvidabliarawa (16th cent.). This
verse seems, however, to be inserted there from elsewhere, and we find it quoted
elsewhere as a kind of versus memoHalis; see Hmberlin’s Anthology, p. 1 ; Bbao
Daji, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay, i860, p. 26, It is hardly
right to say that the only work which pretends to notice the contemporaneous
existence of the Nine Gems, at the court of Vikrama, is the (ryotirvidilbharawa.
The Nine Gems at the court of Vikrama, and the name of at least one of them,
Amara-deva, occur in an inscription, dated 949 a.d. Asiatic Researches, i,
p. 284. See, however, Weber, Z. D. M. G. xxii, p. 709,

® Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1880. On the Naka, Bamvat, and
Gupta Eras ; a Supplement to his Paper on Indian Chronology, i8;o.

282

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

I do not mean to say that all difficulties wliich beset that
period of Indian chronology Lave been removed by him, but
I cannot help thinking that in the main his solution will turn
out to be correct. Mr. Fergusson tries to prove that what is
called the era o&VikramMitya, 56 b. c., was a date arrived at
by taking the date of the great battle of Korur^, in which
VikramMitya, i. e. Harsha of Uyyayim, finally defeated the
Mle/?'’MaSj 544 A. D.^, and by throwing back the beginning of
the new era 6 x 100 (or 10 x < 5 o) before that date, i. e. 56 b. c.
By a similar process, i. e. by adding 10 x 100 years, another
chronological era; called the Harsha era*\ was fixed at 456 b. c.,
though it never seems to have come into actual use.

^ This battle of Korur is described by Albiruni in Ms account of the
(S'aha era :

‘ The (S'aka era/ he writes, ‘ called by the Indian ^aka-killa, is posterior to
that ofVikrama Aditya by 135 years. ^S’aka is the name of a prince who
reigned over the countries situated between the Indus®’ and the sea. His

residence was in the centre of the empire, in tlie country named Aryllvarta.

The Indians represent him as born in another class than that of the /8akyas ;
some pretend that he was a 8'iidra and a native of the town of j^ansura
(Bahman-abad). There are even some who say that lie was not of the Indian
race, and that he was born in Western countries. The people had much to
suffer from his despotism until they received aid from the East. Vikramitditya
marched against him, put his army to flight, and killed him in the territory of
Korour, situated between Multan and the castle of Luny (in the PanjUb?).
This epoch became celebrated by tbe joy which the peoples felt at /Saka’s
death, and it was selected for an era, principally by astronomers. On the
other hand, VikramMitya received the title of /Sfi, on account of the honour
which he had acq[uired.’ But Albiruni adds that the date of the reign of this
Vikram^ditya does not allow us to identify him with the prince of the same
name who ruled in' Malva, This battle of Korur may be the same as that
of Multan, mentioned by T^ran^tha, ‘ Sri Harsha abolished the teaching of the
Mle/sfMas by massacring them at Multan/ Asahga and Vasubandhu were his
contemporaries (900 p. B.N.) ; his predecessor was called G-ambMrapaksha, his
successor ^^ila. Ind. Ant. 1875, p. 365.

- See Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1880, p. 273. The same date,
466 /S'aka = 544 A.D., is luentioned in the ^'atruwyaya Milhiltmya as the be-
ginning ofVikram^ditya’s reign ; Kern, Preface, p. 15, on the authority of
Wilford. BliHer, however, calls the >8atru%aya M^hfltmya ba wretched forgery
of the 12th or 14th century. ’ It has been edited by Professor Weber.

^ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1880, p. 275. Reinaud, Mdmoire sur
ITnde, p. 136. It is strange that Albiruni should not have guessed the real
state of the case, when he was told by a native that Harsha lived 400 years

® Bhao Daji, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bombay, viii, p. 242, 1864;
Eeinaud, Mtiinoire sm* Flnde, 1849, p. 79,^

BENAISSAHCE OE SAKSKEIT' LITEEATURE. 283

This certainly seems very plausible^. We could thus imtleT-
staiid why much that was said originally of the Vikramaditva
of the sixth century a.b. was reflected on the purely nominal
Vikramaditya of the Vikrama era, 56 b. c., the inventor of the
era being projected 600 years before his actual reign, a period
when there is really no monumental, numismatic, or historical
evidence of the existence of any such king.

It has been said that there is as yet no other evidence for this
battle of Korur (Kurukshetra ?) besides Albirimi’s statement.
But Albiruni does not invent battles. He tells us what he
was told, and he may sometimes have misunderstood what he
was told. But in our case the chronological side of the argu-
ment is too strong to be set aside by mere general suspicions
and surmises, though, no doubt, it would have to yield to
contemporaneous evidence which should make a great battle
against foreign invaders at that time and in that place impos-
sible. Besides, the statements of Ti1.ranatha as to Harsha’s
victory near Multan, though no doubt very modern, cannot be
due to mere accident.

Others had guessed at such a solution before Mr. Fergus-
son, but what I admire in him is his pluck, and the clearness
with which he puts forward his theories. Nothing, I feel
sure, has injured Sanskrit studies so much as the want of a
certain amount of scientific manliness and straightforward-
ness on the part of scholars who never venture to say Yes
or No, and who always involve a crowd of reasons for and
against in a cloud of words difficult to construe. Mr. Fer-
gusson, whether he is right or wrong, at all events puts
down his foot firmly and sticks to his colours as long as he
can. There is an immense advantage in this. If he is wrong,
he can be knocked down, and no one is likely to defend again

before Vila*a.ma. ; but that, according to the Almanack of Kasmira, Harslia
ought to be placed 664 years later, i.e. 608 a. n. The number of years may
not be quite right, but what really took place is clearly indicated.

^ Many years ago Holtzmann (Uber den griech. Ursprung des indlschen
Thierkreises, p. 19) remarked, * to assign to VikramMitya the hi’st year ot
liis era might be quite as great a mistake as we should commit in placing
Pope Gregory XITI in the year i of the Gregorian calendar, or even Julius
Cmsar in the first year of the Julian period to which his name bas been given,
i.e. in the year 4713 B.c.^ See Weber, Sanskrit Literature, p. 202.

,284

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

wliat he has been unable to uphold. If he is right, there can
be no mistake as to where he has planted his standard^, and
others may safely push forward beyond the point which he
has reached.

Thus in the case before us, his position is clearly defined.
The era of Vikrama, he holds, was not invented before the sixth
century a. n. It cannot therefore occur in any historical
document before that date, and the whole theory would collapse
if one single coin or stone could be produced dated (contempo-
raneously) 543 of the Samvat of Vikrama. Other scholars wbuld
probably say that we know too little as yet of the history of
the six centuries from 56 b.c. to 544 a.d. to enable us to speak
with so much certainty on this point. True, but Mr. Fergusson
speaks with perfect certainty on what, from his view of the
case, would be an impossibility. And what is the result?
Scholars do not like the defiant position which he assumes, and
they try everything to upset it, and thus the truth will be
discovered far sooner than by any amount of learned humming
and hawing.

The contest has been going on for some time. Dr. Bhao
Daji^ arrived at the conclusion that ‘ not a single inscription
or copper-plate grant is dated in the Vikrama Samvat before
the eleventh century of the Christian era, and that the
Vikrama Samvat was brought into use on the revival of
(Jainism and the establishment of the Anhilpura dynasty in
Gujerat.’ Mr. Fergusson^ thought at first that the Vikrama era
was invented in the age of Bboya of Dhara (a.d. 993), or rather
by the revived Chalukyas (a.d. 1003). This, however, was going
too far. General Cunningham in his Archmological Reports,
vol. ii, p, 0 ^ 66 , denies indeed the possibility of any inscription
being dated in the Samvat era in 747, and reads in consequence
the date of one of Tod’s inscriptions, not 747 — 56 = 691, but
747 + 78 = 8!Z5/6. Afterwards, however, on p. 68, he speaks of an
inscription dated 8x1, which he interprets in the Vikrama era,
i. e, 754/5 and which he quotes as the earliest inscription
he is aware of, dated in that mediaeval era^. Sir Walter Elliot

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay, viii, p. 242 note.

® Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1870, p. 132.

^ There is no contradiction in this, as Mr. Eergusson seems to think (Journal

EENAISSAHCE OE SAKSKBIT LTTEEATEBE*

285

piiblislied translations of some Clialukya inscriptions in 1836
(J. E. A. S. 1837, p. 14), in wHch tBe incipient siibstitiitioii
of the Vikrama for the ^Saka era is alluded to”^. Of course*
nothing* short of a contemporaneous document dated less than
600 of the Vikrama era would really upset Mr. Fergnissoifs
theory, and such a date has, as yet, not been met with.

My learned friend^ Professor Biililer, who still holds to the
belief that the Vikrama era, which begins 56 b. c.^ was really
established by a king of that name who lived before the be-
ginning of tbe Christian era^ has for years been engaged in the
study of Indian inscriptions, and has of course been most anxious
to produce at least one inscription dated contemporaneously in
any year before 600 of Vikrama, or 544 a. n. He could easily
prove that Bhao Daji’s limit was much too late, as there is the
Samangadh plate^the date of which in the Vikrama era comes
to 7 54 A. He also pointed out the F'diAm inscriptions of
Sam vat 802^ (746 a. n.), recording the accession ofVanar%a,
though here Mr. Burges expressed some doubts as to its
genuineness. Anyhow the fact remained that a scholar who
had probably seen more inscriptions than any other, could not
produce a single ease where the Vikrama era was used before
754 A. D., that is, 810 years after its supposed introduction 'k
I should have expected therefore that Professor Biihler would
have hesitated, when he suddenly came on the Kavi inserip- ’
tion which gives the date 430 for its grantor ffayabha^^a, before
accepting it as a Vikrama date. Under other circumstances
his arguments might have carried conviction, but when this is
the only case of a Vikrama date before 600, the circumstantial
evidence on which he relies requires, surely, careful reconsidera-
tion. If ffayahha^^a is the father of Dada II, and if Badass
dates range from Saka 380 to 417 (a, n. 459-^498), no doubt

of theEoyal Asiatic Society, 1880, pp- 271, 272) ; but wiiat seems strange is that
on other occasions General Cunningham should translate Sain. 5 as B.o. 52.
See Archaeological Survey, ill, 31.

* ‘Tribluivaiia Malla (i 182 A. D.) rubbed out the 5 aka, and instituted the
"Vikrama aera in its stead.’ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1837, p. 14;
1880, p. 278. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay, ix, p. 316.

^ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay, ii, p. 371 seq.

® Professor Biihler informs me that he now possesses an inscription, dated
Samvat 794 = A. D. 737/8.

286

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

the date assigned to his father, viz. 486, cannot be Sskn, (a.
564). But does it follow therefore that it is Vikrama 486,
i. e. 430 A. D. ? Is it likely that the father would use one era,
and the son another? Besides, the date in the inscription is
injured, and even if the date were right, there would be con-
siderable doubt whether the Ashac?/ 5 a Sudi could have fallen
on a Sunday in 430 a. d. Heartily as I should welcome any
evidence that would settle this interesting point either way, I
eannot think that this one date^ of Gayabha^fa will settle it.
What has to be proved is that an era, invented by a great
king in 56 b.c., remained dormant for 600 years at least.
This will require very plausible arguments, and the strongest
monumental evidence.

Date of Vikramaditya Harslia of tTy^asTlni.

Let us now see how, according to Dr, Bhao Daji^ and Mr.
Fergusson^, the real date of Vikramaditya, the inventor of
the Vikrama era, can be determined. During the whole of
Hiouen-thsang^s travels in India, MMitya (Harshavardhana
Kum^raraya) was on the throne of Kanyakubya, as supreme
ruler in the north of India The date of these travels,
according to Chinese chronology, is from 629-645. In about
640, or during his second stay at Nalanda, Hiouen-thsang had
a vision that king 5 iladitya would die in ten years. This,
apart from all visions, would place the king’s death in 650
A. B, When Hiouen-thsang took leave of king /SilMitya, he
had reigned thirty years, and was holding his sixth quinquen-
nial assembly (called Mokshamahaparishad, or Pa/i&parishad),
The beginning of his reign must therefore be fixed at 610, its
end about 650. He was by caste a Vai^ya

^ Professor BiiblePs remark (Indian Antiquary, 1876, p. 152) 1 ms not escaped
me ; but here again tlie reading of the figures is very doubtful, see Fleet,
Indian Antiquary, 1876, p. 68, and Professor Btihler himself admits now that
there is no Samvat date on that plate,

“ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay, i860, p. 235 ; 1S68, p. 249.

® Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1870, p. 85.

^Dr. Edkins (Athenseum, 1880, July 3, p. 8) informs us that the same
emperor who received Hiouen-thsang, received with equal favour the Syrian
Christians, Alopen and his companions, in a.d. 639.

® Hiouen-thsang, i, p. iii. Vaisya is sometimes changed into Vaidya.

RENAISSAN-CE OF SANSKMT LITERATUEE. 287

The Chinese historian Ma Tuan-lin gives ' slightly differtiit
dates^ for he speaks of an embassy sent to Magadha in 648'^
^ which found king SilMitya dead^ and his minister 0-lo-na-
shan (A-la-na-chun) ruling in his stead. So small a difference,
however^ in Indian chronology is really to be considered as a
confirmation rather than as a difficulty; and so is Ma Timn-
lin’s account of the wars between ^ilMitya and his great
opponent Pulabe^in^ of Kalyam (whom he does not name),
which he places in 618-627^.

The father of this /Siladitya was Prabhakara (or PrabhS,kara-
vardhana), and his elder brother, Rayyavardhana^. Both had
been reigning before 5 iladitya.

The elder brother had been defeated aild killed by 5 ae^daka
(moon) of Kar;^^asuvar5?2a^, an enemy of the Buddhists and it
was then that /Siladitya was proclaimed king, though lie
declined the title of Maharaya, preferring that of Kumara-
raya. In six years he conquered the ‘five Indies/ but
peace was not restored during thirty years. Being a strict
Buddhist, he forbad the eating of meat. His minister was
Po-ni (Bhmcli), This account of /SilMitya of Kanyakubya, the
supreme ruler of Northern India, and his two predecessors,
coming from an eye-witness, the Chinese pilgrim Hiouen-
thsang, is confirmed by a well-known Sanskrit author Bitwa,
a in his HarshaZ^arita. This text was discovered by Dr. P. Hall,
and its great importance pointed out in his preface to the

^ Journal of tlie Royal Asiatic Society, 1870, p. 85 ; Journal of tlie Royal
Asiatic Society, Bombay, vi, p. 69. Julien, M< 51 anges de GdograpMe Asiatique,
p. 164, gives 646 as tbe date of the departure of tbe embassy, Na-fo-ti-a-Ia-
na-cbun as the name of the minister, and jS'iikumara as king of Eastern India,
probably Bhl,skara-varman, Kuniara.

The inscriptions are supposed to give a different date for Pulakeriii, the
rival of Harsha. Bhao Baji, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay,
viii, p. 250 ; and Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1870, pp. 92-95. See,
however, Fergusson, Indian Antiquary, 1873, p. 94, and Fleet, in Indian
Antiquary, 1876, p. 67, ,

® See Stan. Julien, 1 . e. p, 162.

^ Hiouen-thsang, i, p. 112. ^ Hioueii-thsang, i, p. 112.

® L. c., ii, p. 250. He was the same who destroyed the Bodhi-tree ‘dans ces
derniers temps,’ 1 , c., ii, p. 463, but different from Sahasanka, whose life was
written by Mahesvara, and by the later Harsha; see Hall, Vasavadatta,
pref. p. 18.

288

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS,

V^savadatt^. It lias since been published at Calcutta. In this
work, again the work of an eye-witness, the same Harsha or
Harshavardhana xSiladitya is represented as the son of Prata-
pa6ila and Ya^ovati, his elder brother being Eayyavardhana^.
Prabhakaravardhana is said to have been a worshipper of the
sun^ while his hither Pushpabhuti had been a worshipper of

va. Prabhakaravardhana-^s spiritual guide was called Madha-
vagupta, his astrologer Taraka, his physician Sushe^^a^. Both
he and his brother had been educated by Bha^^^^i. Their
sister, Rayyam, was married to Grahavarnian, who was killed
by the king , of Malava^ on the same day that Prabhakara
was defeated. This king of Malava was afterwards slain
by R%yavardhana, and when Eayyavardhana succumbed to
Gupta, king of Gam^a, ITarsha (Harsha Deva or Harsha
Malla) succeeded. While Wnd^mli defeated the Mdlavas, and
Ra^ya^sri was recovered, Harsha made an alliance with Bhd-
skaravarrnan of Prag^yotisha, the same as Bhaskaravarman,
the king of Kamarupa, whom Pliouen-thsang visited, his title
being Eumara (Hiouen-thsang, iii, 77), like that of Harsha^.

The duration of the reigns of Ra^yavardhana and Pra-
bliakara is not given, but as it is stated that about 640
/Siladitya had reigned thirty' years, and that, about sixty
years before that time, the throne was occupied by xSiMditya
Pratapaala, Mr. Fergusson proposes to fix the end of

^ See Dr. Eitz-Edward Hall’s important Introduction to liis edition of VS.sava-
datta, p. 17, note. Harshavardhana, mentioned in the inscriptions, was van-
quished by Pulakesin II, Satyasraya, whose reign began in 609 a. D. (Ind. Ant.
1873, p. 94), while his great grandson reigned 700-705, according to inscriptions,
See Journal of the R. Asiatic Society, of Bombay, Jan. 1851, pp. 205, 207, 211;
Oct. 1854, p. 5, Bhao Daji, On K^lidto, p. 2.

® The author of the Romaka-siddhanta is called /Srlshewa, but its date, 505
A.n., is too early to allow us to identity Sushewa and jS'rishejm.

® A son of the king of Malava was a guest at ECarsha’s court (Vasavad.
pref. 1 2), and a hostage (p. 50).

* It is to be hoped that the researches carried on with so much success by
M. A. Barth and M. A. Bergaigne will bring to light some contemporaneous
sovereigns in the inscriptions of Kamboya. Unfortunately the inscriptions
hitherto deciphered are deficient at the very time which interests us most,
namely, the seventh century (Journal Asiatique, 1882, p. 188). But the many
names, ending in varinan, the name of Narendra, and the title of Kumdra (for,
I think, it is a title on p, 227, 1. ir) all give the impression that the sovereignty
of the kings of Kamarupa may have extended to the valley of the Iravatl.

EENAISSANCE OF SANSKEIT LITEKATUEl, ,289

iSiladitya Pratapa^fla’s reign in 580, wliicli leaves about
thirty years, 580-610 for PrabMkaravardhana and R%ya-
vardhana. /Siladitya Pratapa^ila ruled fifty years, 530-
580^;, and was preceded by VikramMitya (at Mvasti^),
whose reign would accordingly have ended in 530. Prom
what Hiouen-thsang tells us of Vikrama's treatment of the
Buddhist Manoratha®, the king seems for a time to have
favoured the Brahmans, while his successor .S'lladitya favoured
Vasubandhu and the Buddhists, though it is easy to see that,
during most of these reigns, all sects enjoyed equal freedom
and peace. One king is a Buddhist, the next a Brahmanist.
Sometimes the same king favours both systems, or favours
one at one time, the other at another. We hear of fathers
turning Buddhists, and their children remaining Brahmanists^,
and if there are any feuds between the rival sects, they are
settled by inteUeetual rather than by physical force.

Now this proposal to assign thirty years to the reigns of
Prabhakaravardhana and E%^yavardhana, seems to me to
create unnecessary difficulties. Hiouen-thsang says no more
than that sixty years before 640 the throne was occupied by
6'iladitya. If we assign to xSiladitya a reign from 550 to 600,
it would have been equally true to say that xSilMitya reigned
sixty years before 640. There would then remain ten years
for the reigns of Prabhakaravardhana and Rdyyavardhana,
both of whom died a violent death, and we should have the
battle of Korur and the starting point of the Vikrama era,
as well as the appointment of Matrfgupta to the throne of
Ka^mira, well within the reign of VikramMitya, his reign
extending to 550 a. d. ^ Sixty years’ is probably meant for
the Bnhaspati cycle.

^ Ferishtali, wlio calls him Bho^^a, assigns fifty years to him. Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society, 1880, p. 278 note.

^ Hiouen-thsang, ii, p. 1 1 5,

® Manorhita, which would only be Mano’rhita, seems to be meant for
Manoratha (Joti-i, in Chinese), see plouen-thsang, i, p. 405.

* M.M., Introduction to the fj^ence of Religion, p. i 73 ’ Journal Asiatique,
1882, p. 163. ■■

290

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

Tills may be seen from the following table : —

550. Vikramaditya Harsha of Uyyayint

531-579. Khosru Nushirv5.ii and Barzdi.

544. Battle of Korur, 6oo after 56 B.C., era of Tikrama.

Siddhasena S-Q-ri, a Gain, helps in reckoning the era.

544. Mttngupta, ruler of Kasmira, contemporary of Bliartr*mew^/ia.
K§.lid5.sa, contemporary of DignEga, Vastibaiidlin, and Asahga.

„ mentioned with Bh^ravi in Inscript. 634 a.d.

„ his Setuk5,vya praised by Da?^dill (6th cent.)

„ quotes BMsa, Sanmilla.

Variha-miMra, died 587.

„ quotes Aryabhafa, born 476.

„ ,, Eomaka-siddh5nta by Srlshem, 505, based

on IiQ-ia, Vasisbi{/ia, "Vipayanandin, &;c.
„ Baulisa-siddhtlinta by Panlus al Tunani.

„ „ Vasisb^Aa-siddh5nta by Vishs^n/iandra.

„ „ Saura-siddh5,nta.

y, „ Pait5,maha“siddh5,nta ; also Satya Bha-

danta, BadarS-ya^ia, &c.

Amara-simha, translated into Chinese 561-566.

6'ishwu, father of Bralimagupta (born 598).

Dign^ga, criticised by Uddyotakara; who is mentioned by Snban-
dhu, who is mentioned by B5.?ia.

Manoratha, teacher of Vasubandhu, disgraced, poop.B.s?, ?

550-600. /^IMditya Prat^ipasila (Malava),

called Bhoya by Berishtab.

Vasubandhu, restored, Bandit at Nitlanda, brother of Asahga;

died before 569.

Prabli§.karavardliana.

MEdhavagupta, T^raka, Sushe?ia, at his Court.

Iiapyavardliana (eldest son).

Defeats king of MMava.

Is defeated by /S^as^nka of KarTiasuvama, an enemy of Buddha,
or Grupta of Gau(^a.

Bei~tu, Chinese ambassador, 605.

610-660. 5lMditya Harshavardhana (younger son),

called Kum^rar%a, aVaisya.

His sister, R^yaarl, wife of Grahavarman who was killed by
king of MMava,

His mimster Bha%di (Bo-ni),

illliance with Bh^skara-varman, Kumara of Br^yyotisha
(Kamarhpa).

Wars with Balakesin n of Mah^ritsh^ra, temp. Hiouen-thsang
(618-625, Ma Tuan-lin).

Defeated by Puiakesin II, Saty.^sraya, who began to reign 609.

Chinese embassy to Magadha, leaves 648, arrives after /S'il.’s death.

Visited by Hionen-tlisang, 629-645; by Alopen, 639.

SENAISSANCE OP SANSKBIT LITEEATURE.

291

Dawc^inj Dasaknm^raibarita, Kitvyjidarsa, old.

Subandlm, V^savadattS., quoted by Ba?2a.

» » ^l^otesTJddyotakarajDliarmakirti, pupil

of Asauga.

Biwa, HarshaJi^arita, Kadambarl, Jiandikastotra, EataHYali (DhS-
vaka?) Ptlrvatiparmayana^aka (ed. Bombay).

Maydra, Maytlra-sataka.

Mtoatunga Sdri, Bkakt^mara-stotra.

Er§.rtya'??a.

AdAyar%a.

Bliartr^han, died 650 (I-tsing).

6*'ay§,ditya (Kitsik^), died 660 (I>tsing).

Brahmagupta, bom 598.

Though some of the links in this chronological system, are
still donhtM, the belief in the existence of a Vikramaditya in
the first century b. c. may now be accounted for, while his
real existence in the sixth century admits of little doubt.

The iSaka Era.

There is, however, another era, commonly called the /Saka
era, which, though it does not hear immediately on our sub-
ject, viz. the Eenaissanee of Sanskrit Literature, cannot well
be passed over. And this for two reasons. First, because
that era, beginning in 78 ad., has often been supposed to
mark the end of the Northern Invasion of India, and has been
fixed upon by several scholars as the beginning of a revival
of native government and native literature in India. Secondly,
because here too we have to note a brilliant conjecture of Mr,
Fergusson^ which, if I cannot as yet accept it as readily as
the former, seems to me nevertheless to contain a very con-
siderable amount of truth. It gives me particular pleasure
to acknowledge the high merit of Mr. Fergusson’s chronolo-
gical combinations, because I have on other occasions expressed
my dissent from some of his theories with equal frankness.
Surely lianc veniam jpetimmqm damtisque and what

would become of our studies if, from personal or any other
considerations, we should nver' shrink from speaking' our

^ See Ms two articles ‘On Indian Chronology,” 1870, and ‘On the Saka^
Sainvat, and Gupta Eras/ 1880, in the Journal of the Boyal Asiatic Society,

292

NOTES AND ILLTJSTBATIGNS.

mind? Mr. Fergusson^ without pretending to any knowledge
of Sanskrit, has certainly seen two points which Sanskrit
scholars had failed to see, namely, that the /Saka era is older
than the Vikrama era in India, so far as monumental evi-
dence is concerned, and that, far from marking the end of the
reign of the /Sakas in India, it most likely dates from about
the time of the inauguration of Kanishka, the iS^aka king, as
lord paramount of India.

On the first point there seems little room for doubt ; on
the second, the question is whether Kanishka’s inauguration
really coincides with 78 A.n., or whether the era was fixed theo»
retieally, like the Samvat era, and somewhere near the actual
beginning of his reign. The facts established by Mr. Fer-
gusson possess a very considerable historical significance, as
showing that, like the knowledge of the alphabet and of
coinage, the idea of chronology also, in our sense of the word,
came to the Indians from without ; in the first instance, from,
the Greeks, but, in its more practical application, from the
/Sakas. The first traces of chronologically dated documents
occur in the A-soka inscriptions, and then again in the inscrip-
tions of Kanishka. Both kings give simply the years of their
reign, without looking forward to the future or wishing to
become founders of historical eras. Kanishka, as if to leave
no doubt on the foreign influences which led him to make
these inscriptions, uses Greek letters in addition to his own,
and adds the Greek names of the months

This is all perfectly natural and historically intelligible.
There was no chronological or astronomical theory at the
bottom of these dates. All that happened was that, while
during the reign of Kanishka, we have in inscriptions the
expression ^in the ninth year of the great king Kanishka’
(mahdr%asya Kanishkasya sa^^vatsare^ navame), we find in
the inscriptions of his successors the number of the years
carried on, so that, for instance, ‘in the eighty-third year of

^ We read in tte BaMwalpur Inscription: Maliara^assa Ea^adira^/assa De-
Yapntassa Kanislikassa, samvatsare ekadase Sam II. Baisisassa masassa divase
attaviseti 28. This is meant for the Greek month Daisies. Journal of the
Eoyal Asiatic Society, 1870, p, 500.

^ Sometimes shortened to sawvatsa, samvat, sa?2^va, and sam.

EENAISSANCE OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 293

Yasudeva’ (malia%asya V^stidevasya sam 83), does not moan
in the eighty-third year of Vdsudeva’s reign, hut in the 83 Sam-
vatsara (counting from Kanishka’s anointment) ofV9,sudeva.

Bate of Kanislaka.

The question then arises whether Kanishka, the great &ka
king^ could he considered as the unconscious founder of the
vSaka era^ i. e. whether his own consecration could have taken
place so late as 78 a.d. f

Mr. Fergusson has shown that the occurrence of Eoman
consular coins in the tope at Manikyala, which, is believed
to have been built by Kanishka, would prove no more
than that that building cannot be earlier than 43 b.c., but
would decide nothing as to how much later it may be, while
the state of the Roman denarii, as compared with the coins
of Kanishka, found side by side, would almost amount
to a proof that these Roman coins must have had a long
course of wear and tear, before they were deposited in that
Tope, Mr. Fergusson’s next argument^ though not irresistible,
is certainly ingenious. Taking his stand on the numismatic
fact that the coins of Gondophares, who reigned in the
North-west provinces of India, are anterior to those of
Kanishka \ he argues that those who invented the legend
of St. Thomas’ visit to Gondophares % must have been aware
that Gondophares lived after Christ’s death, and that therefore
the numismatieally later Kanishka could not have lived in
the century b.c., and date the years of his reign from the
VikramMitya Samvat, 56 b. c. ^

The next argument, namely, that in the Ahin Posh Tope,
near Jellalabad, excavated by Mr. W. Simpsoii, new coins of
Kadphises, Kanishka, and Huvishka were found, together with
Roman coins of Domitian, Trajan, and the Empress Sabina,
the wife of Hadrian, would prove, no doubt, that the Tope
could not have been erected before 1:30 a.b., but tbe facfc

^ Prinsep’s Essays, ed. Thomas, vol. ii, p, 214.

^ Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. i, 13; Socra.tes, Hist. Eccles. i, 19.

® The name of G-ondophares, as a king of India, may have become known
in the West tlii'ough his coins, which contain his name clearly written in Greek
letters.

294

NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS.

that Hiivislika, if we reckon his dates from the /Saka era/
78 A.n.j would have lived 784-48=12^6 a.d.j and thus have
been an actual contemporary of the Empress Sabina, is no
more than noteworthy, until it can be proved that Huvislika
himself built the Tope.

The same applies to the find of Vasudeva coins in the Ali
Musjid Tope. Even if, on architectural evidence, this Tope
could not be earlier than the second or third century a.d., it
would still have to be proved that it was built by , Vasudeva.

There is a passage in Albiruni which throws light on the
practical working of the eras in his own time, and likewise
on the manner in which they had been built up. Albiruni
says that the capture of Somnath by Mahmud of Gazni,
January;, 10^6, was placed by the Hindus in the year 947 , of
the Aaka era. This gives us 10:^6-947 = 78/9 a.d. for the
beginning of the &ka era, and he then goes on to tell us, how
they arrived at that date. They first put years, that is,
4 X 60 years + % years as allowance for Loka-kala, thus arriving
at 78/94-24^^ = 3:30 A.D., as the first year of what by some
scholars has been called the Gupta era (319 a.d.). They then
added 606 years, that is, six centuries, and six years as allow-
ance for Loka-kala, and again ninety-nine years^ which , had
elapsed of the seventh century, and this gave them the real
&ka date, namely 242 4- 606 4- 99 =947, which, with 78/9
years of >(Saka, corresponds to 1025/6 a.d.

But we are now met by the same question which had to
be answered with regard to the Vikrama era, namely, how,
did people begin to believe that the ^aka era marked the
. destruction of the Aaka . kings, if it really marked their
recognition all over India. Dr. Bhao Daji was, I believe,
the first to point out that this idea of the ;iSaka era beginning
with the destruction of the ^Sakas, does not crop up before the
eighth century a.dA Aryabhata (born 476) knows as yet
neither the Vikrama nor the &.ka era, and when the Aaka
era is mentioned for the 'first , time by Varlthamihira ^, it is
■ simply called^aka-bliftpa-kala or&kendra-kala,.the time ofthe

^ Journal of tto Boyal Asiaiac Society, Bombay, viii, 242.
^ Colebrooke, Life and Essays, iii, p. 428.

BENAISSANCE OF SANSKRIT LITEExlTUEE, 295

Sahd king or kings. Brahmagupta (born 598) was quoted bj
Colebrooke as having used the expression ^akanripiiiite, wliieli
a scholiast of Bhaskara explained as meaning ' at the end [of
the life or reign] of VikramMitya, who slew a people of
barbarians named /Sakas.’ Whatever the commentator may
have said, Brahmagupta’s era is that of 78 a. b., and his
expression &kanripante was probably the same as , &lka, and
never intended by him to mean ‘ at the end of the 6'aka kings h’.

Legends about tlie iSaEAri.

My own suspicion, I shall call it no more, is that the mis-
understanding in taking the /Shka king for the enemy and
conqueror of the /Sakas arose from the name -(Sakari. This was
taken by later writers, who had no knowledge whatever of
what we call history, in the obvious sense of enemy (ari) of
iSakas, while originally it may have been only another name
for /Shka, namely -Sakara, fern. -Sakari, scil. {gmaivX)

Another explanation also is possible. /Sahara, we know, is
a name given to barbarians, and we are told that they were
so called, because they could not distinguish the three Sanskrit
sibilants, but pronounced them all alike as m. The dialect spoken
by these /Skkaras, or /Sa-sayers, was actually called /SSkari, and
we are told in the Sahitya-darpam (§ 43;^, v. 4) that it should
be employed (in plays) by /S'ak 5 ;ras^ /Sakas, and others ; and so
we find it, for instance, in the Mnl’Makafika. This is certainly
curious, but I must confess that, in spite of the actual use
of such a dialect in the plays, the explanation of /Sahara, as
meaning /Sa-sayer, sounds to me too much like many of the
later artificial etymologies of Sanskrit grammarians, and I
prefer to consider /Sahara or /^akS^ra as a derivative of /&ka,
used originally in the sense of a descendant of the /Shkas^.
Pamni, it is true, does not seem to know the /Sakas and the

^ On anta, at the end of words, see Jacobi, Die Epen Kalidasa^s, pp. 142, 156.
In Bhao Daji’s article on KalidS-sa, p. 27, we find sakanripalut, i. a. 'counting'
from the /Saka king/ not sakannpantat.

® See Junagadh Inscription, gnptasya kEl^gawanam vidh3,ya.

^ In the Prakn'fca-sarvasva (Cod, Bodl, 412), the five principal Prakr/t dialects
(vibhashas) seem to be called : jS^S.kari, K%.nd^i ^avart, Abhiriki, and /Sakki.

296

NOTES AND ILLHSTEATIONS*

5aka kings but lie gives a rule that there is a patronymic
suffix ka, by which, for instance, from godha he forms
GaudhSra^ and by which from ^aka might be formed
^akS-ra. Curiously enough, he restricts the use of that suffix
to the Northerners, and it is perfectly true, that it is not
a very common suffix. It is quite possible, therefore, though
I do not wish to say more^ that the later grammarians, meet-
ing with the /Sakari dialect^ explained it as the dialect
of the ^ak&ras, that is, the dialect of those who pronounced
all sibilants as s, while it was used originally in the sense
of the dialect of the /Shkas and their descendants. If so, it
would he equally possible that the /Jakdra era, or the Siikkri
era, meant originally no more than the era of the xSakas and
their descendants, and was misinterpreted at adater time, into
the era of the enemy of the /Sakas. There is a curious analogy
in ^ulbari, originally a Sanskrit adaptation of sulj)hur, but
explained as ‘ enemy of .^ulba^’ which <!?ulba is supposed to mean
copper. See Petersh.Worterbuch, s.Y.

We now return to the question whether the /Saka era,
78 A. D., can be identified with the inauguration of king
Kanishka, the great Akka king, whose coins and inscriptions we
possess, and who is celebrated for having convoked the great
Council of Northern Buddhists in Ka^mira, about 400 p. b.n.
I confess I feel doubtful on that pointy and I always thought
it possible that while the years of Kanishka’s reign were purely
historical, the years of the Saka era, though beginning about
the same time, may, like the Vikrama era, have been fixed
originally by chronological computation. Even Professor
Oldenherg who, independent of Mr. Pergusson, has started
exactly the same theory®,— and Mr. Pergusson could not
have wished for a more useful ally, — ^has not quite convinced
me on that point, though the difierence between us is of little
consequence.

^ ^akap§,rtliiva in ii, 1 , 6^^ 8y has a totally different meaning, and is ex-
plained as sakahho^lparthiva^.

^ PataTip^ali adds p^wdlaraA. Ethnical names in ara are frequent^

though their etymology is not always clear, e. g. gandhara, tukhara, etc,

^ See his essay ‘ Tiber Datirang der alteren indisclien Miinz* nnd Inschriften-
reihem’

RBNAISSANOE OP SANSKBIP LITEEATUEE. 297

Professor Oldenberg, in support of his theory, appeals to the
' inscription of Baddmi, where we read, ^ When 500 years had
elapsed since the anointment of the /Saka kingV and the other
inscriptions^ where the /S^aba era is simply called ‘the year of
the time of the &ka king He shows how the time between
the first permanent occupation of India by the Yueh-chi, about
2,4 B. c., and the coronation of Kanishka, 78 a.b,, is well filled
by sovereigns whose historical character is established by
their coins, the loor^p /^eyas, the Sy Hermaios; then Kozulo
Kadphises, Kozola-kadaphes, and Ooemo-Kadphises. In this
manner he arrives at the conclusion that an era, beginning
78 A. D., if referring to any historical sovereign, could only
have been the era of king Kanishka, and that in this date
we have as useful and trustworthy a milestone in the history
of India as in the dates of A^oka, b.c., of Jiandra-

gupta, 315-2^91 B.C., and of /Siladitya, the contemporary of
Hiouen-thsang. Kanishka is followed by Huvishka, Huvi-
shka by Vdsndeva, or, as they are called on their own coins,
Kanerki, Ooerki, and Bazodeo ; and the last of them, if
we may trust to numismatic evidence, reigned to about
178 A. D., i. e. to the time when the Chinese chronicles tell us
‘that the foreign people incessantly came from outside of the
, wall of a castle on the border at a place called Jitsu-nanZ

What happened in India after the expulsion of the /Saka
kings, at the end of the Indian Volkerwanderung, we
hardly know. The Hindus themselves look upon the period
immediately following as a blank, or as a time of utter
confusion, until new Brahmanic dynasties arose again, such as,
for instance, the Guptas, and the rulers of Valabhi, who em-
ploy difierent eras beginning 190 and 319 A. D.

I subjoin a few extracts from the Gargi sa?i%hM an astro-

^ BurgesS; Aroligeological Survey of Western India, vol. ii, p, 273 ; Olden-
berg, 1. c., pp. 292-295. (^akann’patii%yabliisbekasaw«vatsareshy atikrantesliu
paii/jjasu satesbu ; and /Sakannpakalasamvatsare),

^ Eggeling, Indian Antiquary, 1874, p. 305.

Professor Kern assigns it to about But as it prophesies the

destruction of the ;S'akas, it can hardly be earlier than about 200 a. d,; probably
it is later. If the Gargi samhitS, is the work of Garga, wc must remember
that Garga knew the sixty names of the Bnhaspati cycle (Kirnaya-sindini,

298

NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS,

Eomieal work, probably of the second or third century a. d«
After speaking of the Kings of Pa^^alipntra (mentioning /Sali-
^uka, the fourth successor of A-^oka, by name)^ the author adds
‘ that then the viciously valiant Greeks, after reducing Saketa
(Oucle) the Pa?U41a-eountry, and Mathui4, will reach Kusu-
madhvaya, that is, the royal residence of PaMiputra, and that
then all provinces will be in disorder.’ This niay refer to the
Bactrian conquests in India, which would thus seem to have
extended as far as Oude, Mathur^, and Pa2^aliputra»

Then follows a complaint about low-caste people (vf^shalas)
assuming the garb of hermits, which may refer to the rule of
an Asoka and his Buddhistic successors. Even Zandragupta is
called a vnshala.

The rule of the Greeks, we are then told, will come to an
end in Madhyade^a, owing to discord among* themselves, and
then will follow seven kings, and, in the end, the reign of the
/6'akas. When that is destroyed, the earth will be empty

These are very vague proi)hecies, yet sufficiently definite to
enable us to say that they could not have been uttered before
the last of the events to which they refer, that is, not before
the destruction of the supremacy of the &ika kings in India
at the beginning of the third century a.d.

On the other hand, as the Gargi sawahitS- is quoted by
Varahamihira, who wrote in the first half of the sixth century,
its prophecies may claim more of a truly historical character
than the similar prophecies which we meet with in the later
Pura?zas, They remind me, in fact, of the prophecies, the so-
called Vyjlkaimas, which we find in the writings of the
Northern Buddhists, and which may be assigned to about
the same period.

There are several such prophecies, for instance, in the Lah-
kavatara-sutra, one of the nine Dharmas". The minimum date

p. i), while Gargi adjusted the Nakshatras and the zodiacal signs, see p, 325,
n; 2. ■. ' ' ' • • ■ ■

^ Of. Mahabhashya, iii, 2, 1 1, aTO?^ad YavanaA Saketam.

® See Kern’s Preface to his edition of Varahamihira’s Br?hat-samhita,
PP- 36-59-

® This Shtra attacks Slhkhya, Yaiseshika, Lokayatika, and Hinayana
doctrines, and establishes two the mano-vi^raana and the alaya«

vi^/ftana in addition to the usual six vigfjBnas.

EEISTAISSANCE OF SANSKRIT LITEEATUEE.

299

of this Sutra is established through its Chinese translations.
The first, by Gni^^abbadra, was made in 443 a.d. ; the second by
BodhiruXi^ in 513 a.d.; the third by -Sikshaiiaiida in 700-704
a.d. In Gu^^abhadra’s translation,, howcTer, the introductory
and the two concluding chapters are wanting, but they are
given in the other translations. The introductory chapter
treats of the lord of .LahM, inviting Buddha to

preach. The first of the two concluding chapters is called the
Dhdra??;i--adhyaya 5 the second the Gatha-sangraha. This Gatha-
sangraha occupies about one-fourth of the whole work, and
some of the Gath as occur also in the earlier chapters.

It is in this Gatha-sangraha that the following prophecies^
placed in the mouth of Buddha Virayas ^5 not of yiSdkyamuni.
occur :

Vyasa/^ Ka?/ada i2ishabhaA Kapik/^ /SakyanS^yaka^l
Nirvfite(r)mama pa^i^at tu bhavishyanty evamddayai,

Mayi nirv/'ite varshamto Vydso vai Bharatas tathd
Kauravd Rama;?- pa^Mt sauro bhavishyati.

Maury d Nanda^ in Guptas tato MleM7m nripfidlianuM
MleM//ante ^'dstra^aj^^kshobha/^ ^astrS,nte ia kalir yugam.
Kaliyugante lokai^ ka. saddharmo hi na blkshitai
Evamadyflny atit§,ni irakrawad bhramati yagat.

The text is very incorrect, and it would be useless to give
more extracts without having access to better documents.
All I wished to point out here is that these prophecies have
a peculiarly Buddhistic character, and that what they |)ro-
phesy is probably what was known to have happened before
the beginning of the fifth century A.n.^

^ Tlie 8on of Pra< 7 ^pati/i, Vasumati/i, of the race of Katyuyaiia, born at
Ifampa.

^ The following may serve as curious specimens : —

Pamiiim sabclauetaram Akshapado Bn’haspati4
Lokayataprawetilro brahmagarbho bhavishyati,

Katyayana/i sCitrakarta Ya</?7avalkas tathaiva i&a

Pudruka (Buddhaka, MS. 0.) ^yofcishMyani hliavishyanti k^daii yuge.

Yaliniko Maytirakshas /ca Kautilya Asvalayana/^

J2/shayas Zca mahabhagS. bhavishyanti anS-gate.

SiddhartbaA S'akyatanayo bbtlt^nta/i pawZt'a&dcZaka/^,

Vasalt arfebamedbavi pasArat klile bhavishyati.

30,0

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

Tlie iS'aka Era called the tSMiv^hana Era.

Though I have throughout called the era which begins
78 A.D. the /?aba era, or the xS 4 ba, I cannot admit that it is
wrong to call it the /Sffivahana era, or speak of it, as Dr.
Kern does, as the era which Anglice^ but not in Sanskrit, is
called /SMivahana era.

At the end of the Muhhrtaga^apati (ed. Bombay), for in-
stance, we read which is a.d. 1863.

This, however, it may be said, is only the editor^’s writing.
But at the end of the Muhurtam^rta?^^/a we find the follow-
ing verses^:

^ftt?<^irTfi§trTHTr ^ftsrs^sTfTr ;

‘ Hari, the glory of the noble Kau^ikas, gave his soul to
(the worship of) the feet of Hari. His son Ananta possessed
all the virtues fit for Brahmans. His son was N^raya^ea.
There is north of Devagiri the famous temple of /Siva (the
Commentator says pura'/^aprasiddha?^ ^ivdlaya?^^ dhusrmem-.si-
vMayam iti prasiddha?^ ^yotirlihgasthanam asti). North of
it there is the village Tapara. Naraya;>za, who dwelt there,
composed there the Muhurtabhuvanonmdrta^^a, i. e. ^Hhe sun
throwing light on the world of hours.”

nt iff 1 nmi nzfn ^

^ The man who reads this Marta^rZa, composed of j6o verses,
is to be revered by all; he obtains long life, happiness,
wealth, sons, friends, slaves; with sound mind he obtains the
perfection of knowledge.’

^ See Cat. Bodl No. 787.

^ The metre requires bhuvanonmartattcZa, at least it requires a long syllable
at the end of bliuvana. The Bombay edition reads bliuv'ano marta^icZa^ which
gives no sense. The MS. Bodl. gires bhuvanonmarta7?,c?a, and this the Com-
mentator explains asj, tesh^xo, uddyotako martaa^cZa iva miirta?jc?as, tatha tarn.

EENAISSANCE OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. SO!

f ii ^ n

' In the year 1493 t>irth of Mivahana was this

Mkttmch (the sun) composed in the month Magha. May this
risen sun he fully successful.’

Now this date is a. d. 1571^ if is repeated at the end
in the following words : Sukhanidhipurushdrthakshma 1493
samahhii parimite mkakdle, i.e, /Saka 1493,

The Viferam^ditya Period of Literature.

These preliminary disquisitions^ were necessary before we
could approach the question which concerns us more imme-
diately, namely, the real date of Kalidasa^ and of the literature
more or less contemporaneous with him.

If Vikramaditya, during whose reign the era of 56 b.c. was
invented, lived in the sixth century after, instead of the first
century before Christ, we now ask the question whether Kdli-
d^sa and his friends also may not have lived at the same
time^? We see Kalidasa’s name and that of Bharavi, the
author of the Kiratdryuniya, quoted in an inscription which
was formerly supposed to date from the year /S'aba5o6 (585 a.d.),
but has lately been proved to date from the year j&ka 556
(637 A.D.)®. This gives us a limit on one side, and we may

^ I discussed the whole of this chronological and literary problem with
Bhao Daji in 1863, and though in general I still hold the opinions which
I then expressed, and some of which were published by him at the time,
I have modified them on several points, and wish even now that what I put
forward here should be considered as tentative only, and subject to correction.

^ It seems almost impossible to give the opinions held by various Sanskrit
scholars on the date of Kalidasa, or on the dates of certain works ascribed to
KMidasa, on account of their constantly varying opinions and the vague langiiage
in which they are expressed. Those who desire information on this point, may
consult Professor Weber’s Sanskrit Literature. That accomplished scholar
seems to put Kalidasa’s three plays between the second and fourth centuries B. O.^
the period of the Gupta princes, Kandragupta, &c., see 1 . c., p. 304 note ; but I
am not quite certain that this is his real opinion,

® See Bhao Baji, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay, ix, p. 315 ^
Eleet, Indian Antiquary, vii, p. 209 j and Bhandarkar, Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society, Bombay, xiv, p. 24. I owe this reference to Professor BiiHer.

302

NOTES AND . ILLUSTRATIONS.

even say that by that time both KMidasa and Bharavi had
probably become famous in India. Let us now see whether
we can fix some kind of limit on the other side.

Vasubandhu.

Hiouen-thsang ^ tells us that Vasubandhu, the pupil of
Manorhita (Monoratha)^ was a contemporary of Vikram^-
ditya of /Sravasti (probably his northern residence). This
Vasubandhu was a very famous Buddhist writer^ whose
date can be fixed with tolerable certainty, not only by the
testimony of Hiouen-thsang, whose travels in India are
separated by two or three generations only from Vasubandhu,
but by the literary history of the Buddhists also. It may be
quite true that the dates assigned by Chinese or Tibetan
writers to certain Bodhisattvas and Arhats are not always
trustworthy. But when we find the works of great Buddhist
authorities so arranged that the later presuppose the earlier
ones, we may place a certain amount of confidence in such
statements.

Thus I-tsing tells us that M&,tn^eta (Mother-child), who
in his youth worshipped Mahesvara, became later in life a
follower of Buddha and composed 400 hymns, and afterwards
1 50 hymns.

These 150 hymns^ he continues, were admired by Asahga
and Vasubandhu.

^ According to Hiouen4lisang (ii, 1 15) tlie Bodhisattva Vasubandhu composed
Ms AbMdharmakosha-sastra in the Great Monastery near Peshawer (Purusha-
pura), and he tells us that there was a tablet there to commemorate the fact.
His teacher Manorhita (Manoratha) also lived in the same monastery, and
wrote there Ms famous Vibhash^-sastra. Manorhita wa^ the contemporary of
king Vikramaditya of fi'ravastl, and lost the favour of the king. The king
convoked an assembly of /S^astrikas and /S^ramawas, in which the latter were
defeated, which seems to mean that Vikram^ditya withdrew his favour from
the Buddhists and encouraged the followers of the old Brahmanio religion.

When Vikramaditya had died, Vasubandhu wished to revenge Ms master
Manorhita, and in an assembly convoked by the new king, he defeated the
/SVainajzas, that is, he regained the favour of Idng /S'iladitya for himself and his
co-religionists. Hiouen-thsang says in another place that /Siladitya, who
occupied the throne sixty years before Ms time (640—60 = 580), was Ml of
respect for Hhe time 'premm ones.’ See also Bhao Daji, On Kalidasa, p. 225,

BENAISSAHOE OF SANSKEIT LITER ATIJEB,

303

The Boclliisattva G^iiia^ added one stanza to eaeli of the
150 hymns, so that they heeame 300 hymns, called the Mixed
Hymns. ,

Mkyadeva of the Deer-park again added one stanza to each,

, so that they became 450 hymns, called the Noble Mixed
Hymns.

This gives ns the following snceession

(1) Matf'ii?eta,

(2) Asahga and Vasnbandhn (pupil of Sahghabhadra),

(3)

(4) /Sakyadeva.

We must now have recourse to another work, Ti,ran?itha’s
History of Buddhism. This is no doubt a very modern com-
pilation, and in many cases quite untrustworthy. Still it
may come in as confirmatory evidence^.

Taranatha (p. 318) tells us that Vasubandhu was born one
year after his brother Asahga had become a priest. Their
father was a Brilhman. Vasubandhu went to Kamira, and
became a pupil of Sahghabhadra, studying under him the
Vibh§,shA the Sastras of the eighteen schools, the six Tirthya
theories, and other works. After returning to Magadha he at
first rejected the doctrine propounded by his brother Asahga
in the YogaMryabhhmi-^astra. But when his brother had
sent two of his pupils who recited the Akshayamati-(sutra)
and the Da^?abhhmika-sutra to Vasubandhu, he became con-
vinced and converted. Vasubandhu then became his brotlier^s
pupiP. This brother Asahga, in order to expiate sin, had
been commanded to teach the Mahayana with commentaries^
and to repeat the TJsh^zisha-vi^aya-vidya a hundred thousand
times. Vasubandhu, after he had become his brother’s pupil,
recited many books, the Guhyapati-vidya among the rest, and
obtained SamMhi. He was so learned that he could repeat

^ See Hiouen-tlisang, iii, p. 106. Was he the author of the Hetuvidylt*
siistra, and the teacher of the Yog^Mrya-bhUmi^^stra of Maitreya ?

Taranatha finished his histoi^ in l6o8, when he was only thirty years of
age. The Tibetan text was published from four MSS., by Wassiljew, who
added a Russian translation, which was translated into German by Schiefner,
and published at St. Petersburg in 1869.

® Akshayamati also is mentioned as his teacher.

304

WTES AND ILLDSTEATIOm,

500 Siltras (300,000 biotas), besides 49 colleetions made by
EatiiaM^^a, tbe Avata^^sata, Samayaratna, &tasabasrika-pra-
ywaparamita, with 500 great and small Mabayana-slltras^ 500
Dbara^^is, &c.

Vasobandbn became Pa^^^ita in Nalanda, travelled about in
Gaura and OJivi^a, and died in Nepal.

Many works, cbiefly commentaries, are ascribed to him,
bis best known composition being the Abhidbarma-kosba,
which, with his commentary, he sent to Sanghabhadra, his old
teacher in Ka^mira b

Air we wish to utilise in these statements of T&ranatha is
the relation of teacher and pupil between

San^habhadra

Yasubandhu,

and between

the brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu.

We now proceed to consult another Tibetan work, the Life
of Bhagavat Buddha by Ratnadharmaraya. It is more modern
even than T^ranatha’s work, having been composed in 1734,
and we possess an abstract only of it, published by Sehiefner
in 1848, in the Mermires de VAcademie de 8 t, Peknbourg. Here
we read in the last chapter, that, four hundred years after the
death of Buddha, Kanishka will be born, the king of G^alan-
dhara, and will be taught by the Arhat Sudarmna. During his
reign, a third collection of Buddhist sacred writings is to
take place in Ka^mira, in the Ear-ornament (ku?^<^ala-vana ?)
Vihara, there being assembled five hundred Arhats under
Pdr^va, and five hundred Bodhisattvas under Vasumitra,
There existed at that time eighteen sects. There lived also
the A^arya N%aryuna, who was received by Rahulabhadra,
and who, having lived sixty years and taught the Middle-
system (Madhyamika), went to Sukh§.vati. His disciples
were xSakyamitra (Sii^hala), Aryadeva, Nagabodhi (?), Buddha-
palita. Aryadeva’s pupils were >Sdra, /Si^ntideva, and Dhar-
^matrata.' ■ , ■■■■. ,

^ On works ascribed to Yasubandbn, see T^r^n^tba, p. 122.

EENAISSANCE OE SANSKRIT LITERATURE. SOS

This gives us

Kanislika — PHrsva and Yasuinitra

Nagar^una (received by Eahulabbadra)

^ L_ '

Kakyamitra, Arya-deva, NagabodM, Buddliapalita

, ! j

^Cira, <S 4 iitideva, Bharmatr^ta,

After this, the Tibetan cbronicler adds that nine hundred
years after the death of Buddha, Aiya Asariga and Vasuhandhu
appeared.

Arya Asahga is said to have been brought by Maitreya to
Tushita, where he was taught by A^ita, and supported the
Mahayana doctrine.

Vasuhandhu was brought by Arya Asahga to Tushita to see
Maitreya. He had been a pupil ofVinayabhadra (Safigha-
bhadra?) in Kamira, and of Akshayamati in Nhlanda.

Then follow their pupils ;

(1) Arya Asahga’s pupils were

Sthiramati in Abhidharma, favoured by Tara (Kien-hoei; see
H.Ths, in, 46, 164).

Digndga in Praroa??a, favoured by Ma%u^ri.

Dharmakirti in logic. The two last quoted by Subandhu,
in his Vasavadatta, p. 235.

(2) Vasubandhu’s pupils were : — ■

Vimokshasena in the Paramitas,

Gu^^aprabha (bhadra ?) in Vinaya (H. Ths. hi, 125),

Aryadeva, a Brahman,

A Chinese Master of the Tripi^aka^ (Hiouen-thsang?),

Gm^amati (H. Ths. hi, 46, 164),

Ya^^omitra^, the prince.

Without looking upon these statements as firmly established
historical facts, we may at least try to find out how far they
fit with what we know from elsewhere.

^ This, according to Jiilien, Melanges de Gdographie, p. 189, is the recog-
nised name of Hiouen-thsang, yiz. San-thsang-fa-sse, Tripiifakd/ji'lrya. During
liis travels in India he called himself Mokshadeva, or Mahdyilnadeva (Hiouen-
thsang, i, p. 248 ; Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1882, p. 95).

^ Yasomitra, author of the Abhidharmakoshavydkhyii sphuiarthil, (quotes
Guyiamati and his disciple Vasumitra (not the author of the Mahavibbtsta).

306

'HOTES AND ILLUSTBATIONS.

We load placed Vikramaditja in the fir&t half of the sixth
centurj^ about loo years before . Hioaen-thsang. If then
we remember that Kanishka’s birth is placed 400 years ^
and AsaDga900 years after Buddha’s death (see also Wassiljew,
BoddhismnS; p. 5 ^^), we find an interval of 500 years between
Kanishka and Asanga. And if we are right in placing Ka-
nishka’s coronation 78 a. n., we should get for Asanga and
Vasubandhu about the second half of the sixth eentm-jj that
is, nearly the same date at which we arrived before on the
evidence supplied by Hiouen-thsang.

This is something, and we now proceed to consider another
fact which was first brought to our notice by one of the most
ingenious Sanskrit scholars, whose death has proved a real
misfortune to the progress of native scholarship in India,
Dr. Bhao Daji. In a paper, read in i860 before the Asiatic
Society of Bombay, he wrote: ‘Mallinatha, in commenting
on the 14th verse of the Meghaduta, incidentally notices that

This is a yery common date for Kanishka with the Northern Buddhists,
•whether of his birth or of his coronation, may sometimes seem doubtful (Hiouen-
thsang, ii, 172). If we take 78, the beginning of the Aiaka era, as the date of
Kanishka’s coronation (abhisheka), the initial date of Buddha’s Nirv^wa would
have to he placed, not as a real event, hut for the purpose of chronological
calculation only, at about 322 B.c. B^rsva andVasmnitra would belong to the
same period as Kanishka.

According to the same chronological system, Asoka is placed 100 years after
Buddha’s Nirvana (Hiouen-thsang, ii, p. 170), i.e. 222 B.C., and this, if I am
right in my rectification of the chronology of the Southern Buddhists, is the
real date of his death (Bhammapada, Introd. p. xxxix).

Again, the king of Himatala, who defeats the Kritiyas, who are enemies of
Buddhism, is placed 600 after B.K., i.e. 278 a.d. (Hiouen-thsang, ii, p. 179),

Hiouen-thsang is fully aware of the existence of three different eras. He says
that some place the Nirvana 1200 years ago (about 560 B.c.), others 1500
years ago (about 860 B.O.), but, he adds, some assert that more than 900
and less than I o®o years have now elapsed since Buddha’s NirvMa. These
no doubt the authorities who placed Kanishka 400 years after the Nirvttwa,
and Hiouen-thsang himself, about 960 years after Buddha (Hiouen-thsang, i,
p. 1 31). Wassiljew^Buddhismus, p. 52) states from Tibetan sources that after
the death of Gambhlrapaksha(p. 282, n.), the patron of Asanga (900 post b.n.)
&lharsha was the most powerful king in the west of India, and was succeeded
by his son /S'lla, It is curious to observe that in Tibetan literature Buddha’s
birth is supposed to have happened not long before the birth of Confucius
(Journal of the Boyal Asiatic Society of Bombay, 1882, p. 100). It might be
well to distinguish the Southern Buddhist era hyp. b.s. from the Northern
Buddhist era, p. b.x.

EENAISSAKCE OF SANSKRIT LITERATITRK 307

I)ign%a/?rarya and Ni/Jnla were contemporaries of Kalidilsa,
the former Ms adversary, and the latter a fellow and bosom
friend V Whatever we may think of the pointed allusion wliicli
Mallinatha discovers in KMidasa’s own words to Niiula and Dig-
naga — and I confess that I believe he is right— there can be
little doubt that Mallinlitha mnst have known of both Ni^laila
and Dignaga as contemporaries of Kalidasa, before he could have
ventured on his explanation Dignaga is not a very common
name, and if we know from our former evidence that Dign^a
was a pnpil of Asahga’s, and that Asahga was a contemporary
of Vikramaditya, we shall probably now feel more confident
in placing Kalidasa in the middle of the sixth century.

It might be objected, no doubt, that Dignaga was a Bud-
dhist, and that a worshipper of ySiva, like Kfilidasa, wms not
likely to have any personal relations with a heretic, such as
Dignaga. The more we know, however, of the intellectual
and social state of India at the time when Kdlidasa lived, the
less weight shall we ascribe to such an objection. Believers
in Buddha and believers in the Veda lived together at tliat
time very much as Protestants and Boman Catholics do at
the present day, fighting when there is an opportunity or
necessity for it, but otherwise sharing the same air as fellow
creatures. We are told that Manatunga, though a Gaina, was
admitted to the court of Harsha on the same terms as Btim
and Maydra. 1 see no reason therefore why Dignaga should
not have met Kalidasa at the court of VikramMitya, or
why he should not be the very Dign%a who is fiimous as a
writer on NySya. We know that Vasubandhu, the brother
of Asahga, was a student of the Ny 4 ya philosophy, and pub-
lished the posthumous work of Sanghabhadra, the NyavjMu-
sara^astra (H. Ths. i, io8). The Bodhisattva G-ina, who suc-
ceeded Asahga (see before^ p. 303), composed the Nyaya-dvfira-

^ The same discovery was made sobseqtiently, but independently, by Pro-
fessor Weber, Zeitschrift der B. M. Gr. xxii, p. 726. Pee also Shankar P,
Pandit’s preface to the Raghuvamsa, p. 68.

^ Mallinatha is placed by Br. Bhao Baji in the fourteenth century, see On
K^lidlsa, p. 22; see ..also Bhandarkar, preface to Mtllatini0.dhava, p. siij and
Journal of the Eoyal Asiatic Society, Bombay, ix, p. 321.

X 2

308

NOTES AND ILLUSTEATrONS.

taraka (H. Ths. i, 1881), and Hiouen-tlisang himself, tliongk
a Buddhist; studied logic under a BrS-hma^^a (H. Ths. i; 187).
I see no reason therefore why Dign%a, the pupil of Asanga
in Pramai^^a, i. e. logic, should not be the author of a work on
Nyaya, which, as Professor Cowell has shown in his important
preface to the Kusum 4 %ali; was criticised by Uddyotakara,
the author of the Ny^ya-varttika

We placed Dign§,ga, as the pupil of Asanga, in the middle
of the sixth century. Uddyotakara, his critic, is quoted by
Subandhu (VasaYadatta, p. 2 > 3 S^), and, curiously enough,
together with Dharmakirti \ a pupil of Asahga’s, who, like
Asanga, was the great authority on logic among the Buddhists.
Subandhu, again, is quoted by Ba^^a, and BS;?2a was the con-
temporary of Hiouen-thsang. All this agrees, and fits so
naturally that we can hardly attribute it all to mere accident.

At one time I thought that there were certain dates of the
Chinese translations of Sanskrit texts which made it impossible
to assign to Asanga and Vasubandhu so late a date. The fact
is that two works which are ascribed to Vasubandhu, the xSata-
^astra (No. 1188), and theBodhi-iittotp§;dana-«?^stra (No.
are supposed to have been translated by Kumarayiva, i.e. about
404 A. D. The earliest translations of his other works belong

^ The Ny^yar-dvto-t^raka-s^stra is ascribed to the Bodhisattva Bharmap^la,
Hiouen-thsang, i, p. 191.

^ Subandhu in his VdiSavadatta recurs several times to the eclipse that has
come over the and Ny%a through the teaching of the Buddhists.

See also Weber> Streifen i, p, 379.

- See Hall, YS,savadatta, preface, p. 9 note, as corrected by Oowell, in his
preface to the K-Usumaw^ali.

* Hr. Burnell, who had great faith in Tllranatha’s History of Indian Bud-
dhism. wrote in the preface to the Samavidli§.na-brahma?za, p. vi : ‘ Tjiran 4 tha
states that Kumarallla (i. e. Kumllrila) lived at the same time as Dharmakirti,
the great Buddhist writer on Nyaya, Some of his works still exist in Tibetan
translations in the Tanjur, and he is quoted by name in the Sarvadar^ana-
saiigraha as an authority on Buddhism. Now Dharmakirti is stated by the
Tibetans to have lived in the time of Sron-tsan-gam-^po, king of Yarlang, who
was born 617 i\.D„ and reigned from 629-698 a. D. About this date there can
be no doubt, for the king married a Chinese princess, whose date is certain. As
Hiouen-thsang left India in 645 A, u., and there is no mention in his work of
the great and dangerous Brahman enemy of the Buddhists, Kumarila cannot
have lived before that date, and fpr many reasons he cannot have been later

than 7®Q

EENAISSANGE OE SANSKEIT LITERATUEE. 309

all to the sixth century, thong*h, as they are assigned to Bodhi-
mBy to the beginning of it. This is strange, though not
impossible. But what shall we say of translations ofVasu-
bandhii by Eumdra^iva? There must be some mistake here.
In the case of the /Skta-^Hstra (Pai-lun), most likely the work
is wrongly attributed to Vasubandhu, for liiouen-thsang
(i, 99) ascribes it to Deva, while, in another place (i, 191),
the /?ata-.§^stra-vaipulya, is ascribed to Dharmapdla. As to
the Bodhiiittotpada, the difficulty remains, and cannot at
present be solved, though I see that this work is sometimes
ascribed to Maitreya. However that may be, the evidence in
support of making Vasubandhu a contemporary of Vikram-
aditya and xSiladitya is too strong to he surrendered, and for the
present it is the Chinese evidence which will have to yield h

I shalFmention now a few more of the undesigned coinci-
dences which support our placing the revival of Buddhist
literature under the auspices of Asahga and Vasubandhu in
the time of VikramMitya and ^SilMitya in the course of the
sixth century.

We have Vasuhandhu’s Ahhidharmakosha, which was ex-
plained by Gu^amati and his pupil Vasumitra, both of whom
are quoted by the commentator Ya^omitra, who is himself a
pupil of Vasubandhu^.

Another pupil of Vasuhandhu’s was Giueaprahha of Parvata.
His pupil was Mitrasena, and it was Mitrasena (eighty years
old) who taught Hiouen-thsang (i, 109) the Tattvasatya-
siisti'SL (by Gm/aprabha, i, 106) and the Abhidharma-^;1ana-
prasthana- 6 - 9 ,stra (ascribed to Katyayana, i, 10%^ 109, 330 ; or
to Ivaty&yani-putra, 300, p. B. N.) We saw that Vasubandhu
had been for a time a pupil of Sanghabhadra’s, and that he
became afterwards converted by his brother Asahga, This

^ Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio informs me that in the preface to the Chinese traiisla'
tion of the Pa.i>lun (/Sata-sastra) the text is ascribed to Deva, who lived about
SoQ p. B.x,, the commentary to Vasu, the translation to Kumrirayiva. The
Eodhihn'dayotplida-sastra is ascribed to Vasubandhu, and its translation to
Kumdrayiva. But in the Khai-yueiidii (a.d. 730 ) fhe text is assigned to either
Maitreya or Vasubandhu. Again, in the list of the twenty-three Indian Pa-
triarchs (Cat. No. 1340) Vasubandhu is the twentieth. There were three more
after him, and they all are supposed to have been known in China in 472 a. d.

- Schiefner, Lebensbeschreibung, p. 310.

310

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS-

seems to have been a conversion from the Hmayina to the
Mahayaiia, for Sanghabhadra lived and died in a monastery
attached to the Hinayana (H. Ths. i, 107), while Asahga
belonged to the Mahayana.

Now one of Asahga’s pupils was the famous ^ikbhadra
(called Bharmakosha), an old man when Hiouen-thsang
came to see him (i, 144) and to study the Yoga^astra under
him. Silabhadra, being too old/appointed his pupil, ffaya-
sena (of Surash^Jra) to teach Hiouen-thsang (i, 2 , 1 % ai5)«
Afterwards when a Brahman of the Lok§.yata sect ohallenged
/Silabhadra and the monks of his monastery (Nalanda), Hiouen-
thsang disputed with him and defeated him, showing a pro-
found knowledge of the SMkhya and the Vakeshika systems
(i, 335)* He afterwards composed a treatise against the
Hinayana^ which was highly praised by /Silabhadra.

Another link between Hiouen-thsang and Asahga is Sthi-
tamati He too was a pupil of Asahga, and the teacher ^ of
&xyasenaj^ who, as we have seen, was the teacher of Hiouen-
thsang. ■

One more link in our chain of arguments is supplied by one
of Mabhadra’s teachers. At the time of Hiouen-thsang’s
visit to Nhlanda, about 637-639, we know that /Silabhadra was
old, say seventy years. When he was thirty years of age his
master, DharmapMa, employed him for the first time to dis-
pute against the heretics, say 600 a. d. Now we are told
by I-tsing that DharmapMa was the contemporary of Bhar«
trihari, and that Bhartrihari died 650 a. n., which, chrono-
logically at all events, would harmonise very well. We may
take notice also that Bharmapala^ was a contemporary of

^ Schiefner, Lebensbescitreibimg, p. 80.

® HioueE-tbsang, i, 21 2. Stbitamc^ti (An-boei-pou-sa) is different from StMra-
mati (Kien-boei). Guwamati and Stbiramati are always mentioned together
(Hiouen-thsang, iii, 46 ; 164), and 0 n?ianmti was the teacher of Vasumitra,
both having written on Yasubandhffs Abhidharmakosha.

^ Works ascribed to a DharmapMa, whose name is translated
Hii-E, lit. guardian of the law. See Eitel, p. 32 b.

No. 1174. ‘Alambanapratyayadhy^na-s^stra^vy0.khy^’ (a. D. 710, by I-tsing).

[This is a commentary on the Bodhisattva Osina’s silstra.]

„ 1197. Vidyilm^traslddhi(-«^tra) (a. d. 659, by Hiouen-thsang).

[This is a commente,ry on Y^isubandhu’s thirty verses,]

RENAISSANCE OF' SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 311

Bhavaviveka. (H. . Tha^. iiij 1 1 ii), ■ tlioiigk Bhavaviveka may
have been considerably his senior K

Sahghabhadra

Asahga

1

Vasubandhu

j f

r

Sthitamati

Mlablladra

Yasomitra, Gu??aprabha

1

1

(qpotesGuwamati |
and Tasiimitra) |

^ayasena

Gayasena

i

Mitrasena

Hiouemthsang

Hioiien-thsang.

1 '

Hiouen-tlisang.

Bhavaviveka (iii, II 2).

BharmapMa and Bhartnhari, died 650 A.B,

(S^llabhadra.

It seems not unlikely, in fact, that the teachers whose names
Hiouen-thsang mentions as famous in his time (hi, 46),
were men whom he might either have known himself, such as
Ailabhadra, or whose memory was still quite fresh at N^landa
at the time of his visit. Several of these names are the same
which I~tsing, who was at NManda in 673, or about thirty-
six years later, mentions as recent, distinguishing them from,
the oldest and the middle teachers on one side, and the
teachers still living on the other.

HIGUEN-THSANG (hi, 46). I-TSING,

^ 37 -^ 39 ^^^- 673 A.I).

Dharmapala ( 5 'abdavidyi.sa^^yuk- Dharmapala.
ta-^lstra).

Xandrapala.

Gummati (teacher of Vasumitra). Gummati.

No, i 198. /S'atas^stravaipulya-vy^kliy^ (a. b. 650, by II. T.)

[This is a commenfcary on Deva’e ^'^stra.]

„ 1210. VidyamritrasiddMUsastra) (a*b. 710, by I-tsing).

[This is simdar to N0.H97.]

^ The following list of Hionen-thsang's teachers is given from Tibetan sources
(Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bombay, 1883, p. 96) : Dantablmdra
or -deva (iS'ilabiiadra ?)» Arya Sahga (Asanga), Vasimiitra (pupil of Gu?/amati),
Dhaimarakshita, Vinaya-bhadra (Safighabhadra ?), Bantasena (Gayaseua ?}.
Buddha, Ananda, and Maitreya also are mentioned.

312

KOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

. StHramati.

Prabhamitra.

ffinamitra.

G^i^anaZ'andra,

Mghrabnddha.

jSilabbadra (Dliarmakosha).

I-tsing mentions besides, as of recent date: DbarmayarS*as
(Fa-hian ?), Si^hafendra (one of Hiouen-tbsang’s fellow stu-
dents, i, Pra^?z%npta (a follower of the Hinayana, i,

Paramaprabha, and G^l^^aprabha (pupil of Devasena, i, io6),
some of whom may possibly be identified with Hiouen-
thsang’s names. As teachers of an early age I4sing mentions
all those whom we have placed in the sixth eentmy a. b., viz.
Sanghabhadra (vidy^matra), Asahga (Yoga); Vasnbandhn, and
Blmvaviveka.

As old teachers he enumerates, Ndg&rynna (x?unya); Deva
(pupil of Mgaryuna), and A.5?vaghosha h

Among those whom he had known personally, he men-
tions, Praywa/^^andra (in the monastery Si-ra-chu at Surat),
Ratnasi;?^ha (in Nalanda), Divakaramitra (in Eastern India),
Tath%atagarbha (in Southern India), and /Sakyakirti (in
Si-ri-fa-sai).

Pravarasena, King of Ka^mira.

Uncertain as some of these facts may be, their harmony
serves nevertheless to produce some confidence that we are on
terra firma^ and not altogether on the quicksand of Indian tra-
dition. Nor is this all. There are still some other supports
which may serve to strengthen our position, and the date which
we have assigned to Kalidasa and his patron VikramMity a
Harsha of Uyyayini. Most of the facts which have still to be
considered, were first pointed out by the late Dr. Bhao Baji,
now twenty years ago, and I then expressed to him my

^ The lives of these three teachers are stated to have been translated by
Kumarar/iva, about 405 A.D, The life of Vasubandhu was translated by
Paramartha, 557-589 A.D. See Bunyiu Nanjio’s Catalogue, Nos. 1460-1465.

Sthiramati,

ffina (Nyayadvarataraka

xSilabhadra,

EENAISSMCE OE SA-NSKBIT LITERATURE. ' SM

general agreement with his arguments, revolutionary as they
sounded at that time to most Sanskrit scholars

Dr. Bhao Daji thought that the great VikraraMitya, the
founder of the Vikrama era, was for a certain time the contem-
porary of Pravarasena, the king of Kamdra. We read in the
R%atarahgkt (Book III, verses of the two sons of

^resh^/^asena, Hira^^ya and Torama^^a, ruling Ka^mira together
for a time, till Hira^^ya, jealous of his brother, threw him into
prison, Torama^^a’s wife A%ana, the daughter of Va^rendra
of the family of Ikshvakn, gave birth to a son, Pravarasena ;
hut after the death of his father Torama^?a, and of his uncle
Hira^ya, Pravarasena was unable, it seems, to assert bis in-
direct claims to the throne of Ka^mira. Under these cir-
cumstances Vikramaditya, called Harsha, the king ruling
at Uy^ayini, the destroyer of /Sakas, and recognised as Em-
peror (ekaM7/atra.5' /?:akravarti) of India, appointed an eminent
poet, who had come to seek service at his court, Miltr/giipta
by name, to the throne of Ka^mira. Matr/gupta ruled Kat’r-
mfra till the death of his patron Vikramaditya. He then
retired to Vara^^asi as a Yati, while Pravarasena succeeded to
the throne of Ka«smtra. He became so powerful a ruler that
he had actually to reinstate the son of Vikramaditya^ ^iladitya
Pratapa^ila, on the throne of U^^ayint

Dr. Bhao Daji started the hold theory that this MiUfigupta,
who was for a time ruler of Karsmira, was the great poet
Kalidasa, and he informs us that there always has been a tra-
dition that Vikramaditya was so pleased with KMidasathal
he bestowed on this poet half of his territories^. Without
confessing myself convinced, I must say that his arguments
in support of this view are at all events very able,

■Pirst, as to the name, we know that names in the literary
history of India are often titles and honorific appellations

^ See Journal of tte Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1868, pp.
249, 251. May I venture to suggest that the friends and admirers of Dr. Bhao
Daji owe it to themselves and to the meraoiy of their eminent countryman to
collect his essays and to publish them, together with a sketch of his life, and a
description of Ms valuable collection of MSS., coins, and other antiquities! [See
Bhao Daji, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay, i860, p. 220.]

^ Bhao Daji, l.c., p. 228;

314 mTEB Am> ILLUSTRATIONS.

rather than' proper names^ and that even in proper names^ if
they have a meaning, the same meaning may be expressed in
different ways. The Trika??/?a-5esha gives Baghukara, Medha-
rudra, and Ko%it as synonyms of Kalidasa. Kldidasa
means ‘the servant of the goddess Kali,’ and if instead of
Kalidasa we were to find Kaligupta, i. e. protected by Kali,
we should probably hesitate but little to accept this as a
synonym of Kalidasa. Kali, however, is one of the goddesses
called Matn or Mothers^, and therefore Matfigupta conveys
the same meaning as Kaligupta or Kalidasa.

Dr. Bhao Daji then asks, Who is M§,tr%npta ? He must
have been a great poet, yet we never meet with his name,
except here in the History of Ka^mira^.

Secondly^ the author of that history mentions other poets,
even Bhavabhdti, who is evidently more modern than Kali-
ddsa, but he never mentions KMid&sa,

Thirdly, we are told that Pravarasena, when restored to his
kingdom, and Kalidasa, when retiring to Benares, parted as
friends. Now, there is in existence a poem in Prakrit, called
the Setu-kavya, the Bridge-poem, with a Sanskrit com-
mentary, in which it is said that the poem was composed by
KMid^a at the request of Pravarasena Vidyanatha, in his
work on poetry, the Pratapa-rudra (end of twelfth century),
quotes an Ary^ verse from the Setu-kavya, calling it a Mah^-
prabandha, while Da^^^^in (in the sixth century) praises the
same poem in his Kavyadar^a as an ocean of beautiful sentences,
though written in Pr&krit. Lastly, Rama.5rama, the eom-

^ The name of Matn occurs in the royal family of Kasmlra, Toraraawa being
the son of Matrklasa, a grandson of M 0 .tnknla, perhaps the same as Matn‘-
vishuu (Bhao Daji, On ‘Kalidasa, p. 220). Might not therefore Matngupta
have belonged to Toram^na’s family, and have sought refuge at the court
of Yikramaditya after Toram§.m*s fall? And might not Vikramaditya have
appointed him to succeed to the throne of Kasmlra on account of his relation-
ship with the old royal family?

Dr. Bhao Daji discovered a commentary on A^akuntala by E 4 ghava Bhafa,
son of Pnthvidhara of Visvosvarapattana (Benares), in which Matngupta
is quoted with reference to the characteristics of dramatic composition. He
met in the same commentary with slokas worthy, as he says, of Kalidasa, and
ivith one from the Hayagiivabadba, a play written by Bhart?’/bha^^a or
Bhartrime%i 7 ia, during the short reign of Matngupta.

® Published by S. and P, Goldschmidt, Eava?iavaha oder Setubandha, 1880.

•RENAISSANCE 01 ’ SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 315

mentator on Siindara’s V^ra^asi-Darpa^^a, speaks of Kalidasa,,
who wrote tke Seto-kavya. Pravarasena again is known to
have eonstracted a famous bridge of boats across the Vitasta
(liydaspes) on which the capital of Kasmira was then situated
(R^'at. iii, 354), and it was in connection with this event that
Kdlidasa is supposed to have written his Bridge-poem, This,
at least, we may gather from a verse of the poet Bi^a, the
contemporary of Hiouen 4 lisang, who says (HarshaX*arita, p. i):

Kirti/^ Pravarasenasya prayata kumudo^y vala
Sagarasya param ipkrsLm kapiseneva setuna \
Nirgatasu na va kasya^ Kalidasasya suktishu
Pritir madhurasdrdrasu ma%arishv iva yayate ?

' The glory of Pravarasena, bright as the white lotus, went
forth to the other shore of the ocean by means of his bridge,
like (R§,ma’s) army of monkeys (which crossed over to Ceylon
on a bridge). Or who does not feel delight in the beautiful
lines sent forth by Kalidasa, as in clusters of flowers moist
with sugar?’

This, if it proves nothing else, fixes at all events the fame of
Kdlidasa for the beginning of the seventh century, and likewise
his connection with Ka-s^mira and its king Pravarasena

^ See Beames. Indian Antiquary, 1873, p. 2406,

^ NisargasUravajw^sasya, ed. Calcutta.

® It is but riglit to state that Dr. Bhao Daji himself brought forward some
objections against his idetitification of MS-tngupta and Kalidasa. ‘Kalidasa/ he
remarks, ‘was a Sarasvata Brahman, a worshipper of <S^iva and PIrvati, while
MMrigupta, as ruler of Kasmira, appears from the Raryatarahghii to have
conciliated the Buddhists and 6*ains by prohibiting the destruction of living
beings. He also pleased the Taishwavas by constructing a temple to Vishwu,
and the deities invoked in the Setu-kavya are first Vishnu and then ^iva.’ (See
Bhao Daji, Abstract of a paper on K^idasa, p. 8.) Now tins, I confess, would
disturb me least ; on the contrary, it would to my mind seem to reflect tlie
true character of the time. Matni;eta, like Matrigupta, began as a worshipper
of ^iva, and then became a famous Buddhist poet. Lalitaditya erected statues
to Vishnu and Buddha. (See before, p. 307.) What troubles me moat, as I
wrote to Dr. Bhao Daji in 1861, is that 'Matf%upta is spoken of in the
R%atarangiwi as a poet, and yet never identified with the famous author
of 6'akuntala. Is it possible that Kalhawa PawrZita, who is so well acquainted
with literary histoi’j, should have told the extraordinary cai'eer of Matngupta
wuthout giving a hint that this poet, raised to the throne of Kaj^mira, wm the
famous Kiilidasa?* I also pointed out to him fcliat the two verses which he had

316 .NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS.

Eourtlily, Dr. Bhao Daji tries to connect this Pravaiasenaj
the king of Ka^mira, and the friend, if not the successor of
Ki^lidasa, with the king who ruled in Ka^mira, and was an
old man at the time of Hiouen-thsang’s visit to that country.
We read that ‘ when Hiouen-thsang arrived at the capital of
Ka^mira, he stopped in a convent, called G'ayendra -vihara,
which had been built by the father-in-law of the king.’ Ac-
cording to the E^'atarangm (iii, 355)? genealogy of the
kings of Ka^jmira was :

Va^rendra

I

About 500^, Toraruawa and A^^^ana, her brother <?ayendra

I

Pravarasena.

It is stated in the Il%'atarahgi?^i that ffayendra raised an
edifice known by the name of Vihara of Sii (Jayendra and of
the great Buddha, ' the very edifice, no doubt, in which
Hiouen-thsang was received as the guest of the king.’
Hiouen-thsang mentions besides 'another house where he spent
a night, and calls it the ‘ house of happiness.’ New, according
to the Kayatarahgi^^^ there was in the same town a house
called ^ Amnta-bhuvana, i.e. the abode of immortal or hea-
venly bliss,’ for the use of foreign mendicants, built by the
great-grandmother of Pravarasena.

All this is very welcome evidence to support the statements
contained in Hiouen-thsang’s travels. No doubt, he passed
through the capital of Ka-maira, he may have slept in the very
houses which are described in the chronicle of Ka<?mira, But
the king who received him could not have been Pravara-
sena. Hiouen-thsang never mentions his name, and nothing
is said in the text of Gayendra, the builder of the ffayendra-
vihara, being the maternal uncle- of the then reigning king.
There is a note in Julien’s translation, ^ ce convent avait ete

given from tlie Harsha/iiaritra, and which seemed to join Pravarasena and
Kalidilaa, do not follow each other immediately, as published by Dr. E. Hall
(Vjisavadatta, Preface, p. 14 ), while in the Calcutta edition the various
reading nisargashravawsasya seems to point to the Eaghuvamsa rather than
to the Setubandha.

^ Bhao Daji, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay, viii, p. 249 .

RENAISSANCE OE SANSKRIT LITERATURE. Bl7

eomimit par le lean-pere du roi {Note de F auteur chimisy
This does not necessarily mean tRat (jayendra was the father-
in-law of the then reigning king, but only of the king living
at his time. Nor had (?ayendra, so far as w^e know, ever been
the father-in-law of Pravarasena^ but his maternal uncle.

But, however that may be, Hiouen-thsang, so far as we
know at present, returned to China in 645. Pravarasena, if
he ascended the throne of Ka^mira after the death of Vikra-
mMitya, may be supposed to have begun his reign about 550,
and even if he reigned sixty years, that would only bring us
to 610 A.D. How then could he be brought together with
Hiouen-thsang and his visit to India in 6!^9“-645 ?

Here, therefore, I can no longer follow Dr. Bhao Daji who,
in order to escape from this difficulty, wishes to putHiouen-
• thsang’s visit sixty years earlier. We have only to give up
what after all is a mere conjecture, that Pravarasena was the
king of Ka<?mira who received Hiouen-thsang, and all the rest
of our chronological arrangement holds good. I know, of
course, that Dr. Bhao Daji has other reasons also for wishing to
place ^il^^ditya, the friend of Hiouen-thsang, in the middle of
the sixth century hut these will have to be discussed inde-
pendently, and after a new and careful examination of the
dates of the Chalukya dynasty.

Hiouen-thsang’s travels in India are contemporaneous with
the Hejrah {62% a.d.), and the first spreading of Moham-
medanism, and, curiously enough, the historian Bedia-ad-din
tells us that the first year of the Hejrah coincided with the
thirtieth year of Beckermadul, i. e.Vikramf^ditya of Kamiira^,
and that Baladut, i. e. BalMitya, was contemporaneous with
Yezdijerd. Instead of Pravarasena, therefore, BaMditya would
have been tbe most likely host of Hiouen-thsang in Ka.?mira,
and a.d. would represent the thirtieth year of liis great
predecessor Vikramaditya, while Pravarasena would retain his
date of about 550, the time between him and Vikramaditya,

^ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay, viii, p. 250.

^ See Wilson, Asiatic Researches, xv, pp. 41, 42 ; Fergusson, Journal of the

Royal Asiatic Society, 1870, p. 97.

318

NOTES ANB- ILEIJSTRATIOm

who began to reign .590, being filled by YudhisliJ^/Jira, Naren-
draditya, and his brother Ra^Mitya^.

It cannot here be my intention to give new ontlines for the
whole history of mediaeval Sanskrit literature, but considering
how chaotic the state of that history has hitherto been, it
may he useful to mention at least a few more facts which
seem to fit easily into the system here devised, and thus may
serve to confirm what otherwise, from the nature of the case^
can only be considered for the present as a provisional pro-
gramme.

Early Astronomers.

Some of the earliest works of the Renaissance period of
Sanskrit literature of which it is possible to fix the date are
the works of astronomers. Some of the knowledge conveyed
by them is presupposed by Kalidasa and his contemporaries,
and we therefore expect that these astronomical writings should
be of an earlier date than the period of VikramUditya, while
on the other hand, if our view of the Turanian Interregnum,
(100 B.c. — 300 A.n.) is right, they should not be earlier than
the third century a.d,

‘ The founder of astronomical and mathematical science in
India,’ as Lassen called him, was Aryabhaz^a, or Aryahhazfa the

^ If Mr. Fergusson is right in stating that copper plates assign to Dhruvasena
of Yalahhi the dates 628 and 640, reckoned according to the Valabhl era
(310+ 318=; 628 ; 322 + 318 — 640), he may also be right in identifying Bhruva-
sena with Dhruvapa^u, the nephew of iS'Mditya of Malava, and son-iu-law of
^llMitya of K^nyakuhya, the patron of Hionen-thsang. See Hioiien-thsang,
i, 206 ; iii, 162. J ournal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1 8 70, p. 90. The Y alabhi
and (jriipta dates, however, are very douhtM, because the era is doubtful from
which they are reckoned. Dr. Bhhler has published aYalabM grant (Ind.
Ant, 1877, p. 91) in which the grantee is the monastery of Arl Bappapacla
(see Indian Antiquary, 1878, p, 80), built by tbe Afearya Bbadanta Sthiramati
He has also pointed out that this must be the monastery described by Hiouen-
thsang (iii, p. 164) as at a little distance from Yalabhi, erected by the Arhat
Al’ara, and then inhabited by the Bodhisattvas Sthiramati and Gunamati,
If then any additions to the Yihara had been made by Sthiramati, at the
time when the grant was made, the grant could not have been made very
long before Hiouen-thsang’s visit to India. Yet the grant is dated Sam 269!
This, with 190, would give only 459 A, D., while with 319 (see p. 294), it would
give 589 A.D., at all events a possible date, if Hionen-thsang and I4sing are to
bO: trusted. .

EENAISSANCE OE SANSKRIT LITERATURE. SI 9

elder (Vndclliaryablia^a), who is quoted by Varaliamibira, Brah-
magupta, Bhaj^/otpala^ and Bh&skar^/^arya, and who was born^
as he tells us himself, in a. n. 476 \ He was the author of wbat
is called the Aryabha^^iya Sutra consisting (1) of the ten verses
of the Da^agitik 4 , and the io‘8 verses of the Aryashi^atvata, the
latter divided into three PMas, (2) the Gamtapada, (3) K 41 a«
kriy4pMa, and (4) Golapada He seems to have written
no more, but he will always remain famous as having boldly
pronounced in favour of the revolution of the earth on its
axis, and on the true cause of solar and lunar eclipses h This
was known hitherto from a quotation from Aryabhaia by
PfithMaka, ^tlie sphere of the stars is stationary, and the
earth, making a revolution, produces the daily rising and
setting of the sun.’ We have it now in the very words of
AryabhazJa^: ^As a person in a vessel, while moving forward,
sees an immovable object moving backward, in the same
manner do the stars, though immovable, seem to move (daily).
At Lahkd (i, e. at a situation of no geographical latitude) they
go straight to the West (i.e. at a line that cuts the horizon
at right angles, or, what is the same, parallel to the prime
vertical at Laiikd).’

Here then we have the oldest scientific Indian astronomer,
clearly fixed as born at P 42 ^aliputra at the end of the fifth
and the beginning of the sixth century a.d., and the fact
that Aryabha^^a quotes no predecessors^ tends to show that
there were none to quote.

We next come to Varahamihira, the son and pnpil of
Adityad^sa, a native of U^^ayini, born at Kapitthaka in
Avanti He wrote several works. First, the Kara^^a^,
commonly known under the name of PauiasiddhS-ntika,

f Bhao Baji, On the age of Aryabhata, &c., pp. 5, 14.

^ Different from this is what Dr. Bhao Baji calls the Maharyasiddhiinta,
containing about 600 to 612 verses, ascribed to a junior Aryabhata.

^ The Aryabhaiiya, with the commentary of Pai*am^disvara (Bhafadipiku),
e(fited by Br. H. Kern, Leiden, 1874.

^ Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays, voi, ii, p. 392,

® Aryabhafiya, ed. Kern, p, 7^ (OolapMa, verse 9).

® Br, Bhao Baji mentions one doubtful allusion to the Brahma-siddbanta,
Lc., p. 15.

^ Karaizas adopt the Yuga era, SiddhSntas the A'aka era, Kern, pref. p, 24.

320 NOTES AND IJLLUSTBATIONS,

because founded on the five SiddMntas^. Secondly, a HorS.-
v4stra, divided into a Gataka, a Yatrika, and a Vivaka-pa^^ala, all
these existing in two forms, long or short. Lastly, the Bnhat-
samhitEl. He generally wrote in the Aryll metre, a metre
which, as Professor Kern pointed out, has a certain ehronolo-
gical character^. We know that he died &ka 5 ^ 9 ^ 5^7 ^

andj as far as chronology is concerned, he may well take rank
as one of the Nine Gems, and a contemporary of Kdlidasa.

He quotes his predecessor Aryahhaz^a, and adopts the epoch
of the Eomaka-siddhanta, which, according to Dr. Bhao Daji,
dates from a.d. 505^, though Albiruni assigns this date to
Varahamihira’s Paw/Jasiddhantika^. Varahamihira also notices
the Paulina ^ V&sishz^ia *^3 Saura, and PaMmaha Siddhantas,
all of which must therefore belong to the sixth century.

The beginning of the sphere being determined by CPiseium
refers the Siddhantas to the same century (Eig-veda, vol. iv,
p. xiv).

The next great mathematician, Brahmagupta, wrote his
Brahma Sphuz^a-siddhanta when he was thirty years of age,
in A.D. 62^8. His father is called ffish^m, and it is just possible
he may have been the ffishmi mentioned as a contemporary
of Kalidasa ®.

We may add, though they belong to a later period, the
dates of Bhaz 5 z?otpala, the commentator of Varahamihira, as
fixed at 967, and that of Bh^skara AMrya, the author of the
Siddh^ntaOTomam, who was born 1 1 14

^ A MS. of tHs work was discovered by Dr. Btlhler (Report, 1874, p. 11),
who gives the curious verse in wMch the movement of the earth is refuted.

2 Bhao Daji, l.c., p. 16; also Shankar P. Pandit, MMatimadhava, pref. p. 27.

^ See Bhao Daji, On the Age and Authenticity of the work of Aryabhata,
Vardhamihira, Brahmagupta, Bha^^otpala and BhUskarll/carya, p. 15.

^ Romaka can only be a name for Roman, and Romaka-vishaya (Varahami-
hira, Kern’s pref. p. 57), for the Roman Empire. The Romaka-siddh 3 ,nta is
ascribed by Brahmagupta to ^S'rlshefta, who bases his calculations on those of
Ljife, Vasisb^/ia, Vigrayanandin, and Aryabhata.

® See Bhao Daji, 1 . c., p. 16; Journal Asiatique, 1844, p. 285.

® Composed by Paulus al Yun^ni, according to Albiruni, and based on Paulus
Alexandrinus, according to Bhao Daji, who also identifies the Yavanesvara
Asphuyidhvaya with Speusippus, while Kern (pref. p. 48) suggests Aphrodisius.

’ Ascribed to Yishwufendra. Vishnugupta, who is quoted by Varfibamihira,
is identified with 7 {a:?iakya by tJtpala. ® See Bhao Daji, 1 . c., p. 28.

® One of his ancestors, as Dr. Bhao Daji remarks, Bh^skara-bhaZ^a, received

EENAISSANCE OF SANSKEIT LITEEATUEE. 321

What is important for our purposes is the Greek influence
clearly perceptible in these astronomical compositions, and
ag‘ain in the poetical literature of the Indian Eeiiaissance.
If we confine our remarks to one subject, namely, the adoption
of the Greek zodiac in India, the evidence is so irresistible
that it might seem almost a waste of time to restate it, if
it were not for the fact that some very eminent seliolars,
particularly in India, still try to escape from the consequences
of that discovery^. I shall therefore state the case once
more, briefly, but I hope, clearly, and I trust that the rising
generation of Sanskrit scholars in India will no longer allow
their patriotism to interfere with their judgment, remembering
the words of Garga^ :

‘The Yavanas (Greeks) are indeed but amongst

them this science (astronomy) is firmly established. Hence
they are honoured, as though they were iSishis ; how much
more then an astrologer who is a twice-born man*^!’

The Mfames and Pictorial [Representations of the Twelve
Zodiacal Divisions.

It is most likely that the division of the heavens into
twelve equal portions was first made by Chaldsean or Baby-
lonian astronomers. Letronne, Ideler, Lassen agree on that
point, and they likewise agree in admitting that the know-
ledge of this division of the heavens into twelve equal portions
or dodecameries reached the Greeks from Babylonia (about
700B.C.?)

Whether the Babylonians possessed names and pictorial
representations for these dodecameries, and whether these too
were borrowed by the Greeks, is more doubtful But what
is quite certain is this,

That to the time of Eudoxos, 380 b.c., the Greets,
though they had twelve divisions (introduced by Kleostratt>s

the title of Vidyilpati from Bho^a, king of DMrA 1042 a.d. See also Weber;^
Sanskrit Literature, p. 261.

^ See Shankar P. Pandit’s preface to his edition of the Eaghuvama^a,

“ Kern, pref. p. 35 ; see also Brihat-sawhiU, ii, 15.

® Mloklch^ hi Yavanis, teshu samyak silstram idawi sthitani,

Etshivat te ’pi pOg'yante, kirn punar daivavid dvi^a/t.

322 . NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS.

of Tenedos^ 496 b.c.), had but eleven signs, the two
divisions, now represented by scorpion and balance, being
represented by one sign only, the scorpion with its claws
stretching across two divisions. Even Aratus and Hipparchus,
150 B.C., do not know the Balance as a separate sign, and it
is first mentioned by Geminus and Varro, about the begin-
ning of the first century b.c.

Hence the important criterion by which Letroiine de-
stroyed the presumed fabulous antiquity of Egyptian and
other zodiacal representations, viz. ‘in whatever monument
or book the Balance occurs as a separate sign (Ccpdiop), that
book or monument cannot be earlier than the first century
B.c. and, we may add, the astronomy of that country, whether
Egypt or India, must have been directly or indirectly under
the influence of Greece.

The earliest Sanskrit astronomer, as far as we know at
present, who mentions the names of the twelve divisions of
the Greek zodiac is Aryabha2Ja (Golap§>da, v. i) b There never
was any authority for saying that ^the twelve zodiacal pictures ’
occur in Anquetil Duperron’s translation of the Maitr§.yayrf
Upanishad (Weber, Ind. Stud, i, p. 278), for we only find
there ‘duodecim bordy (signa) solis,^ which are the Adityas
in the original. It is different with a statement of Cole-
brooke’s, who (Life and Essays, vol. ii, p. Z15) quoted a
passage from Baudh^yana in which the names of some of
the Greek zodiacal signs occur. It is true that he took
the passage, not from Baudhayana direct, but from an
astronomical writer, Div^karabhai^i^a. Nevertheless, the fact
seems true. In the Baudhayana-sutras (see S§,ya?2a’s com-
mentary in MS. India Office Library, p. 13a) we read;

‘ Meshavfishabhau sauro vasanta^, minamesbau va^.’ This,

^ The occurrence of the zodiacal signs in the (i, 19 ; ii, 15, ed.

Sclilegel) has been often discussed. See also Urvast, ed. Bollensen, p. 70. 14.

2 MS. 288, India Office Library, p. 13a: ^ IS

^TTOtsnftTTT^vfhr
u ’ssmreN^i 5nfc[

I M. ^.'ib-^oii W ^ II ^

■awitTTnr: iHfir 11 #rr; 1

BEmiSSANGE OP SAKSK.BIT LITEBATUBE. 323

tlioiigli differing from Colebrooke’s quotation, is evidently
the passage meant, and, unless it belonged originally to an old
commentary, would certainly prove a knowledge, not only of
the twelve divisions, but of their Greek names, at the time
when the Baudhdyana-kalpa-sutras were finally settled. This
point, however, requires further elucidation.

Next to Aryabha?fa, the oldest astronomer who, so far as
we know, shows an acquaintance with the names and pictorial
representations of the zodiacal divisions is Satya.

This Satya Bhadatta (or Bhadanta, i.e. the Buddhist, see
Gat, Bodl. p. 509) is quoted by Varahamihira, and is there-
fore older than Varahamihira, who died 587 a.d.

Satya, as quoted by Utpala in his Commentary on Varaha-
mihira’s Bnha^^&taka, says (MS. Bodl. Walker 165, p. 6^):

WIJ!nJT5[TOt I

fH?: ^ II II

II ^ 11^

^Tr^;i ^ BRraiwi: TOft: i

»mn^ i ?rfir ^ ^

l^fiTO'sii I TOit: i

I (nrT ’g ’Tt

I ^fw 1 71# 'H

iTW^T#hTT I ^ ^ ^ ■^: i

tot: i iirifii^q'}'5aim?» 3[fw i

i»# ^ Wct^irgtn(i3j#tw »?^fir i iri^ mfn

I wjprf# I #'5m: tr^Vr ?r
iftfw I ^57 I ^ i

3[fir ft!#n: i 505r i •

^ II

^ Taking the first verse as an Arya, + i8 + i2-j'i5,I had to read mesiio
instead of go, the reading of the MS. The second verse is a Glti, is-f* 184-

324

notes and ILLDSTBATIONS.

‘The ram, the bull, a pair, one holding a lyre, the other
a club, in the water a crab, a lion on a mountain, a girl
standing in a ship holding in her hand a lamp and corn, a man
holding a balance, a scorpion, then a man with a bow, and
his hinder part a horse, half of a Makara in front a beast,

a man with a pot, a fish and a fish.

It will be seen that this description of the signs by Satya
contains none of those indications by which Lassen (ii, p. nay)
endeavoured to prove that the Indian pictorial representations
were not borrowed from Greece, but from Babylon. He
might indeed object to ‘the pair, one holding a lyre, the
other a club,’ instead of the Greek twins, but in all other
respects the Indian representatives of the twelve divisions
are accurate copies of the Greek representatives, such as we

find them after the first century, B.c. ^ ,

Another astronomer, likewise quoted by Varahamihira and
therefore supposed to be anterior to him, is B§,dar§,ya»a ^ (Km-n,
pref p aq). He too describes the pictorial representations
of the twelve divisions, and at the same time their relation to
the difi'erent parts of the body of Brahman or the Creator :

Hr.

‘The ram is the head^ the face of the creator is the bull,
the breast would be the man-pair, the heart the crab, the lion
the stomach, the maid the hip, the balance-bearer the belly,

» Both Satya and Badar§,ya»a are mentioned in the i9yotirvid-abhara»a as
contemporaries of VikramSiditya, See Shankar P. Pandit, Eaghuvamsa, pref.

^ ^e metre of the first verse is Yasantatilaka, of the second IJpaglti, if we
annnl V two svUahles hv reading fcaitasy eti or something like this.

RENAISSANCE OE SANSKRIT LITERATUEE. 325

8 g

the eighth (scorpion) the membrum, the archer his pair of

10 ^ ^ It

thighs, the Makara his pair of knees, the pot^ his pair of
12

legs, the fish pair his two feet.’

This distribution of the zodiacal signs among the diifereiit
members of the body of Brahman has been considered a modern
invention. It oeenrs, however, in Vardhamihira’s Brihay^a-
taka, where the members of Kala, Time, are given in the
same succession :

•^The members of Kala are the head, the face, the chest,
the heart, the stomach, the hip, the belly and the membrum,
the two thighs and knees, the two legs, and the pair of feet.’

Other writers who knew the zodiacal signs are Yavane-
5vara^ and Gdrgi (Bnhayyataka, MS, Bodl. Walker 165, p. 6*^),
but as their age is more difficult to fix, their statements as
given by Utpala in his commentary to the B/?hayyf 4 taka need
not here be quoted. The verses of Varahamihira himself, in
which he describes the representatives of the twelve zodiacal
divisions, have been often referred to by Whish Lassen
and others. They are :

ftlrit 5rw i

%tn: nw ii h ii

‘Two fishes, a man with a waterpot, a pair of men, one

^ Here the pot instead of the pot-bearer would favour Lassen’s argument.

^ Yavanesvara in translating the old Nakshatra division into the modern
zodiacal division assigned 3-^ Nakshatra to each zodiacal division. Gargi did
the same and identified Mesha (Aries) with Asvini, Bharard, and one
quarter of Krittikd. Tatha 7 i:a Yavanesvara/i, dve dve sapfide hhavanam
matam bheti. Tatha I*a GargiA» Asvini bharanl mesh a /6 krittikapadam eva
/L’a, &c. See also Eaghunandana, {?yotistattva, p. i.

^ Whish states that they are taken from the Horilskstra ; see Trausacjtioiii
of the Literary Society of Madras, Part I, London, 1827, pp. 63-77.

^ Eeitsohrift fiir die Kund^des Moigenlandes, iv, 302.

326

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

with a club; the other with a lyre^ a man carrying* a bow,
ending in a horse, a Makara with the face of a wild beast,
a man with a balance, a maid in a boat, carrying corn and
a lamp ; the rest are like what their names say, and they all
are placed in their own element/ (i.e. the fishes in the
water, &c.)

Much more important, however, than this is another verse,
in which Varahamihira gives the actual Greek names of the
zodiacal divisions in their Sanskrit corruptions. I give it
from the Bnhayyataka (MS. Bodl. Walker 165, p. 1 1) :

II b II

fgiift icpios,

Tavpo?,

fiSflr. Sanskrit word

retained, though karka/aA
would have better cor-
responded to icapKivog^
Xewv,

irapOevog (tnWfT,

comm.),

^vyov,

cTKopTrlog^

^T- To'^LKog,

aljoKepm,

^>7: vSpo’Xpo^ (not
tx 0 v 9 .

This knowledge of Greek astronomy and even of Greek
astronomical terminology came to India not later than the
fifth century. If then we find clear traces of it in the poetry
of Kalidasa and his contemporaries, our proposal to place the
renaissance of Sanskrit poetry in the sixth century will receive
a new support. That Kalidasa, both in his Eaghuvaw.^a and
in his Kumara-sambhava, shows a familiarity with Greek
astronomy, particularly as embodied in the Hora^astra, %vas
clearly shown by Dr. Jacobi (Monatsberichte der Preuss. Aca-
demic, 1873, p. 544), who dwelt strongly on the word yamitra
(Siap-erporj, used by K§,lidasa in the Kumara-sambhava (vii, i),
as one of the many words borrowed by Sanskrit astronomers
from Greek. Shankar P. Pandit, in his preface to the Ea-
gliuvam^a, has tried to invalidate the conclusions to be drawn

RENAISSA^TCE OS’ SANSKRIT LITERATUBE. ,327

from sncli evidence, but without effect. He might indeed
have quoted Kalidasa’s belief in RMiu swallowing the moon
(Baghuv. xii, 2,8), as pre-Aryabha^Jean ; but in the very same
poem (xiv, 40) Kalidisa shows his knowledge of Aiyabha^^ah
astronomy, by saying, ' For what in reality is only the shadow
of the Earth, is regarded by the people as an impurity of the
pure Moon.’ Shankar Pandurang Pandit himself points out
several passages clearly proving the poet’s acquaintance ‘ with
the judicial astrology based on the zodiac,’ but he declines to
discuss ‘the very large question of how much the Indians
borrowed or lent’ (p. 37), and suggests, that even if the
Indians borrowed from the Greeks, ‘they might have done
so two or three centuries before the Christian era ’ (p. 43).
They might, no doubt ; but is there any allusion to a native
scientific astronomer at that early date ?

Amarasimlia.

Having pjroceeded so far, we may try at least whether one
or two more of the other so-called ‘Nine Gems,’ or, as we
should say, the Nine Classics of the Renaissance, can have a
place assigned to them in the chronological scheme which we
have elaborated so far. And first of all Amara or AmarasiMha.

We owe to General Cunningham^ a very ingenious attempt
to fix the age of this famous lexicographer. He shows that
the Buddhist temple at Buddha-Gaya is the same which was
seen by Hiouen-thsang, and which did not yet exist at the
time of Fa-hian. It must therefore have been built, he thinks,
between 414 and 642^. An inscription found by Mr. Wilmot
and translated by Wilkins in 1785 (Asiatic Researches, vol. i,
p. 284) ascribes the building of the temple at Buddha-Gmyfi-
to Amaradeva, one of the Nine Gems at the court of
Vikramaditya. This is certainly curious. But the date of
the inscription is Samvat 1015 (949 A.n.), and unfortunately
we have not the original to test the accuracy of the transla-
tion. Still, so far as it goes, Amarasi#zha’s date, as one of
the Nine Gems of Vikramaditya, in the middle of the sixth
century, would well agree with this Amaradeva, one of the

^ Kem, pre£ p. 19.

328

NOTES AND ILLUSTBATIONS.

Nine Gems of VikramMitya, and the builder of a temple at
^Buddlia-Gaya.

It should be added that Stanislas Jnlien quotes a Chinese
translation of the Amara-kosha, called Pan-wai-kwo-yUj or
Kii-sho-lun-yin-yuen-sh’, by Gm^arata, a native of Uy^ayini^
who lived under the Emperor Won-ti of the Tcheou dynasty
(561-566), though he does not know whether it is still in
existence^,

Vetalame?^^//a.

Another name among the Nine Gems is VetMablia#a, the
author of the Nitipradipa, published in liseberlin’s Antho-
logy (p. 538). Dr. Bhao Daji has identified him with Vetala-
mmtimi and maintains that he is mentioned in the Myata-
rangi^^t as a contemporary of VikramMitya, but without
giving chapter or verse

■TShsLitriment/m is spoken of very highly by R^a^ekhara
(14th cent.) in his B^lar8.maya?^a (ed. Calc. p. 9)^ where Yil-
miki, Bhartrime^i^^Aa, Bhavabhuti, and Ra^a^ekhara himself
seem placed much on the same level.

Mankha (1150 a. n.) informs us that his style resembled
that of Subandhu, Ba^^a, and Bh^ravb being full of puns
(Biihler, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bombayj
1877, p. 43).

Dr. Bhao Daji is inclined to take for

Bhartribha2?25a, and this again for Bhartrihari, but there is
no proof for this

There is a poet called Bhartrime^^/^a^ the author of a poem
(Biihler, Detailed Report, p. 43) the Hayagriva-vadha, who
was royally rewarded by Matngupta (Ra^at. iii, 360) ; but
I cannot find a VetMame^^^a

I do not like to attempt any more of the ^ Nine Gems,'
because I could only repeat the more or less vague conjec-
tures of other scholars as to the probable date and character

^ Journal Asiatique/i 847, Aoat» p. 87.

^ Journal of the Royal AsiaUc Society of Bombay, 1862, p. 218.

® Bhao Daji, Lc., p. 218.

^ Professor Weber suggests that Vet^labha^fa may be the author of the
yetalapa^/Aiavimsati, Z. D. M. G. xxii, p. 723.

EENAISSANCE OE SAHSKEIT LITEBATUEE. 32 S

of DlmiiYantari^ Kshapa^zaka^, Smlm\ GhaM^arpara/ and
Vararu/d. Having, bowever, found Hiouen-tlisang’s memoirs
so useful a slieet-anchor for some of tlie floating literature of
the sixth and seventh centuries, I add a few more eases in
which the Chinese traveller seems to me to have supplied
some useful hints as to the dates of certain names famous in
Sanskrit literature.

BMa. and MayCtra.

We saw that Ba^^a, the author of the Harshafeita, passed
some time at the court of xSiladitya, the king of Kanya-
kubya, the patron of Hiouen-thsang. He was a Vatsyayaiia,
the son of Xitrabhanu We therefore can fix the date
of and his literary productions^ such as the Kddam-

bari^ and possibly the Eatndvali ^ (ascribed, like the ‘Nkgk-
nanda, to Harsha), in the first half of the seventh century.
Now B4«a tells us himself in his HarsliaZ’arita that he
counted Bhadra, Ndraya^m^, l^ana, and Maydraka among his
friends. In fact, Bknsi and Maydra are generally mentioned
together, and we are told that Mayura was the son-in-
law of Bkna,. Eayasekhara'^, as quoted in the A?arhgadhara-
paddhati, speaks of Bd?za and Maydra as living at the Court

^ Quoted by in the Daaakumto^anta as a famous physician.

^ Might this be Bhartnliari ?

® This cannot be ^ahku, the son of MayUra, quoted by »S'arhgadliara (Cat.
Bodl. 124^ 135), nor ^ahkuka (Biihier, Journal of the Eoyal Asiatic Society,
Bombay, 1877, p. 42).

* Hall, YasavadattI, preface. Bhao Baji, Journal of the Eoyal Asiatic
Society, Bombay, 1860.

See Biihler, Indian Antiquary, ii, p. 127; and Ind. Stndien, xiv, p. 407.
'All Kasmlra MSS. of the Kavyaprakte read Ba??a, not Dhavaka, In the
^arada alphabet the two words may easily be confounded..’ Hall, Vusavadatta,
pref. p. 15.

® The Yewlsawh^ra is ascribed to a Bhaffa NarayaJia, and the date of this
poet is refeiTed by Grill, in his edition of the Yenlsamhdra, to the sixth century.
But, according to Eajendralal Mitra (Jouinal of the Asiatic Society^', Bengal,
1864, p. 326) BbaiJiJa Naraya?ia, the author of the Venisamh^'a, was one of the
Brahmans who came to the Court of Adi^ 0 ,ra, A.n. 1072 ?

^ Hall, 1 . c., p. 20. E^asekhara wrote this Prabandlmkosha in 1347.
Indian Antiquary, 1872, p. 1 13 note.

S30

NOTES AND ILLUSTBATIONS.

of /Sriliarslia, again the patron, we should think, of Hionen-
thsangk

The story ^ told of and Maydra is that Maydra was
a Pandit living at Uyyayini, honoured by the older Bho^a.
His son-in-law was Ba?^a, who was likewise very learned,
and they soon began to squabble with each other. The king
therefore sent them to Ka^mira, which seems at that time to
have been celebrated for its learning, and told them to have
it settled there which of them possessed greater learning.
The award seems to have been slightly in favour of Bawa.
When they had returned to Bhoya’s capital, Mayura, the
father-in-law, once listened to a quarrel between 'Bkn^ and
his wife^ and called his daughter a Kmdi^ a scold. There-
upon the daughter cursed him, and he became a leper. In
order to be freed from his leprosy, Mayura wrote the Mayura-
5ataka ^ in praise of the sun, and having been cured became a
great favourite with Bhoya. Baj^a, being jealous, had his own
hands and feet cut off, and then praised Kmdikk \ asking her
to restore his limbs. This also was accomplished. Then the
ffainas, anxious to show that their holy men could perform
as great a miracle, produced Manatuhga Sdri, who allowed
himself to be fettered with forty-two chains, and by composing
the Bhaktamara-stotra, in forty-two verses, freed himself from
them.

If then Ba^^a, Mayura, and possibly Mdnatuhga^ lived early

^ The other Harsha, the son of Hira, and sometimes called the nephew of
Mammaj^a, is reported to have written, besides the Naishadhiya, the Sthairya-
vi7rara«a, the Viyaya-prasasti, the Khandana-khawc^a-khadya, the Gant^orvlsa"
knla-prasasti, the Ar%ava-varMana, the iTAa^c^aprasasti, the ^ivasaktisiddhi,
and the Nava“slhasahka-7«arita : see Hall, V4savadatta, pref. p. i8 ; Biblio-
graphy, p. i6o; P. N. Fhrhaiya, Indian Antiquary, 1874, p. 29 ; Cat/Bodl.
p. 124^ ; Biihler, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay, 1875 , p. 2 79.

^ See Biihler, on Chandiktotakam of BawabhaiJ^a, in Indian Antiquary,
April, 1872. The story is told by the (?aina commentator on the Bhakta-
marastotra.

^ The Mayhra-sataka (shrya-sataka), in ^ardhla'Vikridita metre, was pub-
lished by Yay/Tesvar /S?4stri.

^ The Jiawc7ika-stotra, inA'ardhla-vikrMita metre, consists of 102 verses.

® Called also Matahga, as in the verse of E%asekhara, ‘Aho prabhavo
vagdevya yan Md-tangadivakara^ ;Sriharshasyabhavat sabhya/t samo Banama-
yi\rayo/i.’ Cf, Hall, Vasavadattl., pref p. 21 , This surely proves that all three
were favourites of Harsha (whatever Mahesa Chandra Nyayaratna in his edition

RENAISSANCE OE SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 331

in the seventh century at the Court of Harsha(vardhaBa), the
works and the writers whom Ba^j^a quotes must be referred to
a still earlier period. Such are:

Xaura, i. e. Zaurisuratapa^M^ika, see Biililer, Ind, Stud,

xivy p. 406, ■*-.

Subandhu, author of the Vasavadattl.

Bha^Ji^^-ra-Harii^randra.

xSalivahana or Satavahana, the author of an Anthology
(Gathakosha^).

Bh&sa^^ a dramatic writer.

Kdlidasa^ whose date, as the author of the Setukavya, is
fixed by that of king Pravarasena, and as the author of the
Meghadfita by that of Dignaga.

The author of the Bf/hatkatha, GnnMAya % and A/^^jai%a,
or Adyaraya, of whom we know nothing, for he cannot be
meant for Kaviraya, the author of the R%havapa^i<^^aviya,
who himself quotes both Subandhu and Ba;mbhai^^^a as his
equals in the art of poetry^.

As to Subandhu, the contemporary of Ba^^a and Mayhra,
it is possible that he may have lived even somewhat earlier.
Ba^a quotes him, not he Ba^^a, and in several places^ when
the three are mentioned together, Subandhu’s name comes
first, though, of course, this may be an accident only. Bike

of the Kavyaprakasa, Vi^wapana, p. 19, may say to the contrary); for the
meaning is that the })Owei‘ of Sarasvatl is so great that even a Gaina could
become a favourite of king Harsha, like Ba)ia and Mayhra; i. e. as if he were
their equal.

^ See Bilhler, Indian Antiquary, 1873, p. 106, Hema^mdra gives HS-la as a
Synonym of S^tavAhana.

^ Kalichtsa, in the well-known passage in the introduction to the Mrdavikag-
nimitra, quotes Bhasa and Saumilla, as his predecessors in dramatic composi-
tion. The name of Bhavaka, as the real author of Harsha’s NrtgAnanda,
is supi3osed to be due to a wrong reading,

» See p. 357.

- Ragh. i, 41, Kaviraya's patron was Ra^a Kamadeva of the Kadamba
family, at Oayantipura, in the Southern Marhatta country (see Fleet, Indian
Antiquary, x, p. 249). If the Mu%a, whom he refers to, is the uncle oflihoya
of BhAra, his date must, of course, be later. Hall, Vasavadatta, pref. p, 19,
places Oayantipura among the Khasiya hills in Eastern Bengal ; Weber, Ind.
Streifen, i, p. 371, in the East, according to the scholiast.

® KavirAga mentions Subandhu before BAwa, so does RAyMekltara (Vasa-
vadattA, Hall, prof. p. 21), and Bho^« in the Sarasvat!-ka??f/iAbharajia.

332

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

Ba^^a and Damlin, Snbandliu quotes Gu'/^afMya, the author of
the Bnhatkatha (in Bhutabhasha), and he seems familiar with
tJpanishads, Bharata, Eam§.ya^2a, Hariva^sa, PunV^as^^ the
^/mndovii^iti, N akshatravidya, Nyayasthiti, U ddyotakara,
Baiiddhasahgati^5 Alahkara (Dharmakirti), Mallaiiaga’s (Vat-
syayana’s) Kdmashtra^, &c.

Dmdin,

Dmclin^ again, the author of the Da<sakumara/^arita and
of the Kavyadar^a may be earlier than Ba^za, but he can hardly
be placed before KMidasa. Nor did Colebrooke ever say this.
He writes, *Da^?^riin, this distinguished poet, famous above all
other Indian bards for the sweetness of his language, and there-
fore ranked by KMidlsa himself (if tradition may be credited)
next to the fathers of Indian poetry, Valmiki and Vyasa^.’
But it is well known that Da^^^in quotes K?ilidasa^s Prakrit
poem, the Setubandhu (i, 34), and the utmost therefore that
could be conceded to tradition would be that Da?^l^'^in was
a contemporary of KMidasa, who wrote the Setubandhu
(Da^amukhabadha) for Pravarasena, the king of Ka^mira.

Bhavablititi.

Having had to fix some of the dates of the kings of
Ka^mira who were brought in contact with Vibramaditya
and his successors, we may determine the date of Bhavabhuti
and some later writers, mentioned in the history of that
country.

We saw that VikramMitya of Kamira came to the throne
in 59 A.D., and that his successor, BalMitya, may have been

^ There is a reference by name to one at least of the Purajzas in Bto’s
Kadarnbarl, ed. Calcutta, p. 83, namely, the Vayu-purawa ; see Bhartwhari,
ed. Telang, p. viii.

® Is this the Buddhasamgiti-shtra (Cat. No. 401) which was translated by
Dharmaraksha between 265-316? There is also (Oat. No. 1298) the Mahayana-
bodhisattva-vidya-sahglti-sastra, ascribed to Dharmayasas (the commentator of
the Vasavadatta mentions Dharmaklrti), and translated by Fa-hu (Dharma-
rakaha?) and others.

3 Hall, pref. p. ii ; Catal. Bodl. p. 218.

* Colebrooke’s Life and Essays, iii, p. IK4.

HENAISSAKCE OF SANSKRIT LITERxlTURE. 333

tte contemporary of Hiouen-thsang. ■ With Ihm the Gonarcliya
(or Gonandiya) dynasty came to. an end, and a new dynasty
began with Durkbhavardhana, the husband of Anafigaleklia,
After Durlabhavardhana follows Darlabbaka Pratapaditya,
and he is succeeded by ZandrapiJa, wbo was murdered and
succeeded by his brother Tdrapir/a (VayrMitya).

Here we have to note a synchronistic event, namely, an
embassy, mentioned by Cbinese historians, as having been
sent in the years 713 and 720 to king iTentolopili, who must be
ZandrapMa. Tardph/a having been murdered, his brother
Muktapir/a, known as Lalitdditya, succeeded to the throne of
Ka^mira^ and acquired the supreme sovereignty of India.
Here again we receive a certain confirmation from Chinese
history, for the Mutopi, to whom an embassy under Poe-li-to
was sent during the reign of the Chinese emperor Hiouen-
tsung 713—755, was probably Muktdphk, i. e. LalitMitya.
His minister was Aaktivarman h

It would carry us too far were we to examine the exact
dates of these kings from Vikramaditya to Lalitadityaj which
will have to be settled hereafter on the evidence of coins and
inscriptions rather than on the statements of the Rdyataran-
gim, I doubt even whether the number of years assigned to
some of these kings refers to the years during which they
reigned, and not to the years of their lives. Reigns of 42,
35 (or 13), 36, and 50 years, following each other as in the
case of Vikramaditya, Baladitya, Durlabhavardhana, and
Pratipaditya are very unusual. For our present purpose,
however, we may he satisfied with the terminus a quo^ namely,
VikramMitya 592-634, and the iermims ad quem^ namely^
Lalitdditya, whose reign, we are assured, began 700, leaving
the intervening reigns to be determined by future archaeo-
logical evidence^.

^ See Indian Antiquary, 1873, p. 106. It was during his reign that Va^ra-
bodhi, a learned A/iarva of MMava, and his pupil Amogha-vayra arrived in
China and introduced Tantrik doctrines (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,
Bombay, 1882, p. 93).

2 Biihler, Biief von jSlaschmir, Sej^. id, 1875, and his Report on Kaimir,
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bombay, 1877, p. 42, where a correction
of twenty 'five years is recommended.

334

FOTES AND ILLITSTRATIONS.

One of tte earliest victories of LalitAditya was that over
Ya^ovarman, king of Kanyakub^a, and this Ya^ovarman, as
the Ea^atarahgim informs us, was the patron of Bhavabhuti,
Vi-kpatib and R^yam,

Here then we are again on literary ground. Bhavabhuti
was a native of the Vidarbhas, the modern Berars^ bnt he may
well have lived at the Court of Ya^ovarman in Kanyakiibya.
Vakpati is known as the author of a Pr^knt poem (discovered
by Dr. Biihler, and now in course o'" publication), the GauJa-
baha^ celebrating Ya^ovarman’s victory over a Gau^?a king,
and in that poem he speaks highly of BhavabhCiti. If then
we place Bhavabhiiti in the first half of the eighth century, he
is at a proper distance from Olid^sa, and we can understand
at the same time why Ba^^a, who lived under Harshavardhana,
610-650, should have left out Bhavabhhti’s name in the list
of poets at the beginningi^of his HarshayJarita^.

After the glorious reign of LalitMitya we have KuvaMya-
pMa, reigning one year, 736-7375 then Va^rMitya (also called
Vappiyaka and Lalitaditya) 737-744, Pr?*thivyapir/a 744-748,
Sahgi 4 mapirZa 748-755. Then follows <?ay^pi^/a (755~786),
and his reign supplies us again with some literary facts,
though of a date too late for our immediate purpose. We are
told that the king himself studied Sanskrit under Kshira,
who has been supposed to be the same as the commentator of
the Amarakosha^. He re-established the Mahabhashya ^ (of

^ King Yasovarman of Kanyaku%a and Vakpatiragra, author of the Gauda-
baha, iire mentioned in the Tapaga/jrAa Pa^iavall as living about Samvat 800,
i, e. 744 A.D. This is not very far from the date we have assigned to his
contemporary, Lalit0,ditya, particularly if we were to adopt the correction in
the chronology of the Ka^atarahginl, proposed by Cunningham and Biihler,
who places Lalitaditya 725 A. D.

® All this has been very ably discussed by R. G. Bhandarkar, in tbe preface
to bis edition of the Malattm^dhava, 1876.

® R%at. iv, 485 seq. Kshira, the commentator of Amara, quotes from
Kalidasa (cf. Shankar P. Pandit, Raghuva??isa, pref. p. 77). Professor Auf-
recht, however (Zeitschrift der D. M. G., 1874), plj^ces the commentator
Kshira between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, chiefly because he quotes
the ^'abdanuaasana, ascribed to Bho^a or Bho^ar%a. Biihler mentions a
Kshira as the autlior of an Avyayavntti and Bhatutarahgiwi, and he calls
him ^ G^ayapida’s teacher.’

* Helara^a, the author of a commentary on Bhartrihari’s Yiikyapadlya,

RENAISSANCE OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE.

335

Pata%ali?), and there lived at his Court the following lite-
rary men -.—Thakriya, Bha«a, Damodaragupta\ Manoratha,
/Sahkhadatta, iTa^aka, Sandhimat, and Vamana.

KINGS OF KASMtRA.

Sresl^l^/lasena. Va^renclra.

A.D. 1

About 500 Hira?^ya and Toram^wa, -p A%anil (her brother,

1 6^ayendra).

544-550 MatWgupta, 550 Pravarasena.

patronises Kalidasa’s Setuk^vya, praised by

'BhsiTtrim&ntha,. Dmdm and BEwa.

531-579 Khosru Nushirvan.

Yudhish;^7iira and Padmavatt.
Karendrdiditya.

Rawdrditya and Ra?jdrambhl.

592-634 Vikramilditya.

Bdlddity^ cont. Hiouen-thsang (?) .
Burlabhavardhana AiiangalekhU.
Burlabhaka Pratdpitditya (Karkofa
dynasty).

Aandr^lda (713 and 720, Chinese
embassy).

TUrdpida Vaprdditya.

700-736 Mukt^pida LalitMitya Prat^pilditya.
His minister jS'aktisvtoin.

(71 3-75 5, Chinese embassy.)

736- 37 Kuvalayapida.

737- 44 Vayr^ditya.

744-48 PHthivy^plda.

748-55 Bahgr^in%3lc^a.

755-86 C?ayapida,

patronises KsMra, Vtoana,
introduces Mahtehashya.

788 Birth of /S'ankaraAArya.

Gainas, Siddhasena, MMatuiiga.

I had hoped that the study of the (?aiiia literature, since it
was taken up in good earnest by Dr. Jacobi and others, would

descended from Bakshmawa, the minister of Muktapic?a, i. e. Lalitaditya. See
Indian Antiquary, 1874, P- 2^5 .

^ The Hanuman-n^/aka is ascribed to a BS-modara-misra.

622 Hejrah.
632 Yezdijerd.

Yasovarman of Kdnya-
kubya defeated by
Lalit^ditya,

patronises Bhavabhati.
„ Vakpati.

336

NOTES AND ILLESTEATIONS*

have yielded some useful results in support of onr chronology
of the Eenaissance period of Sanskrit literature. It has-
thrown, no doubt, considerahle light on the religious state of
India at the time when ^Sakyamuni started his reform by the
side of other reformers, such as Vardhamdna Mahavira Grmta.^
putra^ the founder of (Jainism, Pura?^ja Ka^yapa, Maskarin
Go^'dliputra, Sa%ayin Vaira2^i!S-putra, A^ita Keiukambala,
Kakucla Katyayana and others. The date of Vardhamana’s
Nirva^ea, 5^6 b.c., shows him to have been, or to have been
believed to have been, a contemporary of -®,kyamuni, and if
his era is liable to the same kind of correction as the Ceylonese
era of Buddha, 543 B.c., we should have the true date of the
founder of (Jainism, 460 B.c., by the side of the corrected date
of Buddha, 477 B.c.^

Leaving, however, the early period, we ask at what time
the sacred canon of the (Jainas was fixed and written down,
and here the answers vary, though within narrow limits.
Devarddhiga^^i^ Kshama^ramai^^a, to whom the work of writing
down the sacred canon is ascribed by tradition, lived 980 after
Vardhamana’s Nirva^ea, i. e. 454 a. n. (or, if corrected, 520 a. d.).
He did for (Jainism what Buddhaghosha had done about thirty
years before for Buddhism

At the very same time, 980 a.v., we are told that Bhadra-
b^hu’s Kalpasutra was re-arranged in nine vafen§.s or lectures,
and was read in the hall of Dhruvasena, king of Aiiandapura,
to console him after the death of his son Senahgaya®.

One more statement should here be mentioned, which was
first made by Bhao Daji (KMidasa, p. 2^5), and has since been
repeated by others, viz. that ' (Jaina records mention Siddhasena

^ Kalpasntra, ed. JacoBi, Introduction, p. 6.

^ Burnouf, Introduction, p. 162 ; Indian Antiquary, Nor. 1879.

® See Jacobv I.C., p. 6.

* Also called Bevava^aka, pupil of BasBagam ; cf. Indian Antiquary, xi,
P- 247-

® Jacobi, Lc,, p. 16.

® Other dates of this event are 993 A.V. and 1080 A.V. See Jacobi, 1 . c., p. 24.
The last date 1080, if corrected, would give us 620 a.d., and thus bring
Bhruvasena of Anandapura together with Bhruvabha^a of Valabhl, provided
Br. Biihler’s conjecture as to the era of the Valabhl grant (Indian Antiquary,
1878, p. 8d) be correct. See before, p, 318, note.

; BENAISSA.NCE OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 33?

Suri, a learned 6^aina priest, as the spiritual adviser of Vikra-
mMityah’ Professor Jacobi (Kalpasutra, -pref. p. 14) added;

‘ Siddhaseiia is a (jaina author, who is said to have made the
arrangement of the Samvat era for king ¥ikramaditya‘^f

Now Sena (d^ri-shewa) is mentioned by Brahmagupta and
Albiruni as the author of the Boniaka-siddhanta, one of the
five siddhantas used by Varahamihira. Snta-sena or &uti-
sena is quoted as one of the astronomers of Yikramarka, in
the ffyotirvidabharai^m. The question therefore arises whether
all these names belong to one and the same Sena, called
Siddhasena (the blessed Sena) by the (Jainas, and &i“she«a
by the Brahmans, and whether the calculation of the
Vikrama era, as 600 before 544 a.d., the date of the battle of
Korur, is actually the work of this ffaina astronomer. We
find a certain confirmation in the PaMvalis of which Dr.
Klatt has lately given extracts in the Indian Antiquary,
xi, p. 2^45. Here we read in the Khai'ataraga/ 5 /^a Pa^fi^dvali
that at the time of SiMhagiri there lived PddaHpt§;MTya, Vnd-
dhavadisdri, and his pupil Siddhasena-divakara, who received
the Diksha name of Kumuda&ndra, and that the latter
converted Vikramadity a. The same story is repeated in the
Pai^avali of the TapagaMa, where we read that Arya-mahgu,
VriddhavMin, Padalipta, and Siddhasena-divakara lived at
the same time, and that the last, the author of the KalyCma-
mandirastava, converted Vikramaditya. The date assigned to
Siddhasena is 470 after Vardhamana’s Nirvam^ which would
be exactly the beginning of the Vikrama era 56 b. c., but
cannot be used for historical purposes.

The same Pa^J/avalis confirm also the accounts of Mana-
timga which we discussed before. We find in the Kliarata-
ragaHa Pai^i^avalL under No. 23, Manatunga, author of
the Bhaktamara and Bhayahara stotras, and in the Tapa-
gaHa Pa^f^S-vali, under No. 20, Manatunga (malave.mra~

^ See Hall, Bibliography, p. 166. In the Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society, Bombay, x, p. 130, Dr. Bhao Baji quotes the Brabandha iTmtamani
and other works in support of the statement that Siddhasena Bxvakani and
Kalidasa were contemporaries of Vikrama,

^ Siddhasena is quoted by Varahamihira, 7, 7.

® Keni; Bnhatsamhitil, pref p. 47,

Z

338

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS,

iaulukyavayarasi^^^liadevamatyaA), who hy means of his Bliakta-
marastavana converted the king who had been beguiled by the
sorceries of Ba?^a and Mayura at Vanvzasi, and convinced
Nagar%a by means of his Bhayaharastavana. He also com-
posed a stavana, beginning ‘ Bhattibhara.’ The date assigned,
somewhat before 980, i.e, before Devarddhiga^i (454 or ^ 2,0
A n.), is again systematic rather than historical. It should
be borne in mind that all these statements taken from Gaina
authorities are either of very modern or of very doubtful date.
Nevertheless there is some hope that, under certain restrictions,
the Gaina literature also may help to the elucidation of Indian
chronology.

I-tsing.

I entertain, in fact, a strong hope that a continued study of
the ffaina and Buddhist books will bring out some more facts
throwing light on the parallel stream of Brahmanic literature^
which by itself is without any landmarks, and seemingly
flowing from nowhere to nowhere. We shall soon possess
a catalogue of the whole Buddhist TripizJaka in its Chinese
translation, giving us the dates of each translator, whether
Hindu or Chinese, and thus enabling us, if we may trust the
Chinese chroniclers, to fix at all events the lowest date of the
Sanskrit originals. We owe a great deal already to information
contained in the travels of Chinese pilgrims in India, particu-
larly of Fa-hian, 400-415 A.n,, of Hwui Seng and Sung Yun,
518 A.D,, and of Hiouen-th sang, 6:^9-645, in helping us to
determine a period of literary and religious activity in India
extending from about 400 to 700 a.d., the very period of what
we may now call the Renaissance of Sanskrit Literature. I
shall add here a short abstract of some quite unexpected in-
formation on the literary state of India in the seventh century,
which 1 lately discovered in the works of the Chinese pilgrim,
I-tsing.

The Kasika.

There is a famous commentary on Pa^nni’s grammar, called
the Ka-yika Vnttiih

^ Kilgika, a Commentary on Piwiui’s Grammatical Aphorisms, by Vmdii

RENAISSANCE OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE.

339

Professor Boehtlingk, in the introduction to liis edition of
Pddni's Grammar (p. liv), referred the Ka^ika Vritti to ahoiit
the eighth century, on the supposition that Vdmana, the
author of the Ka^sika, could be proved to be the same as the
Vamana who is mentioned in the Chronicle of Kamiira (iv,
496), The evidence on which that careful scholar relied was
as follows:— -Kahla?za Pa^c/ita, the author of the K%atarangi';a,
is evidently anxious to do full justice to GayfiptrZa, who, after
the battle of Pushkaletra, recovered the throne of his father,
and became a patron of literature. He mentions, therefore, in
full detail his exertions for the restoration of grammatical
studies in Ka^mira, and particularly the interest he took in
a new edition, as we should call it, of Pata%ali’s Mahilbhashya.
He then passes on to give the names of other learned men
living at his Court, such as Kshira (author of Dlidtutarahgi^xi,
according to Biihler), Damodaragupta, Manoratha, dhhkha-
datta, A'dtaka, Sandhimat, and Vamana. This Vdmana was
supposed to be the author of the Kd.nka. But if this Vamana
had been the author of the Kd^ika — that is to say, of a com-
plete commentary on Pamni^s Grammar— would not Kalha?ea
have mentioned him as connected with the revival of gram-
matical learning in Ka^ymira, instead of putting his name
casually at the end of a string of other names?

It ought to be stated that Professor Boehtlingk has himself
surrendei*ed this conjecture. There is another conjecture, first
started by Wilson (Asiatic Researches, xv, p. 55), that the V§,-
mana here mentioned at the Court of {?ayapMa was the author
of a set of poetical Sutras and of a Vntti or gloss upon them.
Dr. Gappeller argues against this in the introduction to his
edition of Vamana’s Kavyalankara-vntti (Jena, 1875). Vd-
mana, he says, the author both of the text and of the gloss of
this w^ork, quotes /Sudraka, the author of the IslinkfcJi^ik^tilin . ;
Kalidasa, the author of the ^akuntald, Urva^i, Malavika,
Meghadfita, Kumarasambhava, and Raghuva?/2A’a ; Amaru,
Bhavabhdti, Mdgha, the Hariprabodha, the Namamala, Ka-
mandakaniti, Vi^Akhila, and Kavir%^a. Now if this Kavii%a

vamana and G'ayaditya. Edited by VmdM Balasastrl, Professor of Hindu
Law in the Sanskrit College, Benares. (Benares, 1876, 1878.)

340

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

is intended for the author of the Edghavapa;^ Javiya, who is
supposed to have lived later than the tenth century, this would
he sufficient to place Vtlimana at least after looo a. d., while
(jayapMa, his supposed patron, died in 776 (or 786) a.b.

All depends here on the date of Kavii%a/who may after
all not be so late as Dr. Cappeller supposes.

After having assigned Vamana, the author of the Kavya-
lahkara, to the twelfth century, Dr. Cappeller proceeds to
identify this late Vamana with Vamana, the author of the
Kaiik^ Vritti. His arguments, however, are hardly con-
vincing. He relies chiefly on a statement of Bala5'&,strin, in
the introduction to his edition of the Ka-^ika, %vhere that
learned scholar speaks of a third Vamana, a poet, who wrote the
Lokottaralalita, in Mah^rashi^ra, and places him in &ka 1595,
i. e. 1673 A. D., adding that the grammarian Vamana lived 500
years earlier, i. e. 1 1 73 A.n. If Professor Weber states that
Bala^astrin assigns the grammarian Vamana to the thirteenth
century (Hist, of Sansk. Lit. p. this must refer to some
other paper wdiich has escaped my notice. B^la^astrin, how-
ever, gives no evidence in support of his statement, nor does
he, so far as I am aware, ever hint at Vamana, the gram-
marian, being the same as "Vamana, the rhetorician.

Professor Goldstiicker, in a similar manner— that is, without
producing sufficient evidence — referred Vamana, the gram-
marian, to the same recent period as the Siddh^nta-kaumudt
N^ge^a, Purushottama, and other grammarians (Goldstiicker,
Pamni, p. 89) — therefore to a period later at all events than the
thirteenth century.

Before we proceed further, it will be necessary to determine,
first, whether Vamana was. the only author of the Kii^^ika.
Colebrooke (Sanskrit Grammar, p. 9) spoke of the Ka.sika as
the work of Cray Mitya, or Vamana ffayaditya. B^la,sastrin,
the editor of the K^aka, thought likewise at first that Vamana
and ff ay Mitya, who are mentioned as the authors, were one
and the same person June 1878, p. 1 . 9). He

found, however, afterwards that Bha?^^^idikshita, the author
of the Siddhanta-kaumudi, clearly distinguishes between the
opinions of feyaditya and V&mana (Sutra v, 4, 43 ; ed. Tarka-
va/caspati, i,p. T %"]):, and he might have learnt the same from

EENAISSANCE OF SANSKEIT LITERATUKE«

341

Professor Aiifreeht’s excellent edition of the U#kli S iitras (pref*
p. XV, Sutra i, 52). BMa5‘astrin afterwards assigned tlie first,
second, fifth, and sixth books to (jayaciitya, the rest to Va-
in ana, while in an ancient MS. of the KMka, discovered by
Dr.Biihler in Ka.smira (Journal of the Bombay Branch of the
E. A. S., 1877, p. 72), the first four adhy%as are ascribed to
G'ayMitya, the last four to Vamana. (See also Professor Kiel-
horn, Katyayana and Pata%ali, p. 12, note.) The evidence is
therefore decidedly in favour of Vamana and trayaditya being
two difierent persons and joint authors of the Ka^-ika.

In the preface to the sixth volume of my edition of the
Eig-veda (p. xxix), I endeavoured to show that the statement
made by Bha^^^oyidikshita in the /Sabdakaustubha, and by the
author of the Manorama, viz, that Vamana, whose fame had
been eclipsed by Vopadeva, had been brought forward again by
Madhava, was to some extent confirmed by the commentary on
the Eig-veda, Vopadeva being nowhere quoted by Madhava,
while Vdmana is quoted at least once in the commentary on
the Eig-veda, and more frequently in Saya;^a’s Dbatuvritti.
BMa^^strin concluded rightly that Vtoana must be older
than Madhava, 1350 a. n., and older than Vopadeva, who
lived in the twelfth century. I added that Saya^^a quotes
both Haradatta, the author of the Padama^ari, an exposition
of the Ka^ika, and Nyasakara, i. e. G'inendra, the author of
the Nyasa or Ka^ika-vntti-pa^ika. This last book is like-
wise quoted by the author of a commentary called the Kavya-
kamadhenu, probably the work of Vopadeva, so that the
interval between the authors of the Ka<^ika and those who
could quote from commentaries on their works must be
extended accordingly.

This was the state of uncertainty in which the date of the
Kiuika had to be left. ‘ It must be earlier than the twelfth
century’ (Burnell, Aindra School of Sanskrit Grammarians,
p. 92); ^it is not a modern work® (Biihler, loc. cit., p, 73 )-
Such were the last utterances of two of the most competent
judges.

One other argument in favour of the comparatively early
date of Vamana and feyaditya should not be passed over. It
was produced by Bala6*§,strin, who showed that both were

342

NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIGNS.

evidently Gainas, or, what is the same with him, Band dhas.
Like the Amarakosha, the Ka^ika begins without any invo-
cation or exposition of the character of the book, a custom
always observed by orthodox writers. Secondly, the authors
of the K^^i^ika actually alter the text of Pamni, which no
orthodox Brahman would venture to do. In Sutra iv, 2^, 43,
they insert sabaya, writing grlma^anabandhusahayebhyas tal
instead of Pi^mni’s grama^anabandhubhyas tal. Thirdly, they
quote instances referring to Buddhist literature, which, again,
no respectable writer would do. When giving an instance of
the use of the verb m, in the Atmanepada, meaning ‘to be
honoured’ (Pm I, 3,36), they say, ‘/farva leads, i.e. is honoured
in the Lokayata school.’ This Zarva (ATarvaka?) is said to be a
name of Buddha, and means here an heretical teacher, who is
honoured in the Lokayata school An orthodox writer would
have quoted authorities from orthodox, never from nihilistic^
sehools. And Balamstrin adds that there were other distin-
guished grammarians too at that time who were (?ainas — for
instance, the author of the Nyasa, (?inendrabuddhi^ — but that
their works were afterwards eclipsed by those of orthodox
grammarians, such as Bha^fi^oyidikshita, Haridikshita, Nage-
6’abha^?^a, &c.

After thus having established two points — viz. that
V^mana and G'ayMitya were joint authors of the Ka^ikil, and
that they were G^ainas or Bauddhas — we return to the ques-
tion as to their probable date. Meeting in Mr. Beal's
Catalogue of the Buddhist Tripi?^aka (p. 94) with the title
of a work called Nan-hae-ki-kwei-chouen, being ‘Eecords
concerning Visits and Returns to the Southeru Seas,’ I con-
sulted my friend and pupil Mr. Kasawara on the contents of
the work. He informed me that it was written by I-tsing,
one of the best-known Chinese pilgrims, who left Kwang-chau,
in China, in the eleventh lunar month of the year 671 a.d.,
arrived at Tamralipti, in India, after a long voyage, in the
second month of 673, and started from that place for Nalanda

^ On Lokayata as another name of the Aitlrvaka school, see Cowell, Sarva-
darsana-safigraha, p. 2.

‘Not later than the twelfth century, because quoted by Vopadeva,’ Buhler,

RENAISSANCE .OE. SANSKRIT LITERATURE, 343,

io tlie fifth month of the same year. After the lapse of some
years, he returned to Tamralipti, and sailed to Si-ri-fa-sai, in
the Southern Sea countries.

It seems that he wrote his book, ' The Accounts of Buddhist
Practices sent, being entrusted to one who returns to China,
from the Southern Sea Countries/ in Si-ri-fa-sai, for he
generally compares the practices of India with those of the
Southern Sea countries. His work consists of two volumes,
containing four books and forty chapters. Though he does not
mention how long he was in India, yet, as he refers to the
usurper Queen, Tsak-tin-mo-hau, whose date is 690, we see
that he must then have been absent from China twenty years,
and have spent eighteen years in India. We may gather, in
fact, from remarks occurring in his work that he was born
about 635, that he left China in 571, arrived at Tamralipti
in 673, and was still absent in 690, at the time of the
usurpation of Queen Tsak-tin-mo-hau. That usurpation
lasted till 705, when the Tang dynasty was restored. It is
stated elsewhere that I-tsing died in 713, seventy-nine years
old, and that he had returned to China in 695.

In the thirty-fourth chapter of his work I-tsing treats of
learning in the West, and chiefly of grammatical science, the
t -<9ahdavidya, one of the five vidyas or sciences. He gives the
name Vyd-kara^za, grammar, and then proceeds to speak of
five works, generally called grammar in India.

I. The first is called elementary Siddhfinta, and begins with
siddhirastu. It was originally taught by Mahe^vara, and is
learnt by heart by children when they are six years old.
They learn it in six months-

Most likely this refers to the SWa. Sutras, granted by the
favour of Mahe^wara. But, from the description given, this
Siddhanta must have contained much more than the fourteen
Siva Sutras. ‘ There are forty-nine letters/ I-tsing writes, * the
compounds of which are divided into eighteen sections, and of
which altogether more than 10,000 words are formed. These
words are arranged in 300 ^lokas, of thirty-two syllables each.'*

II. The second grammatical work is called Sutra, the
foundation of all grammatical science. It is the work of PcWini,
and contains 1,000 dokas. He was inspired by Mahe^vara,

344

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

and is said to have been endowed wdth three eyes. Children
begin to learn it when they are eight years old, and learn it
in eight months.

III. Dhatn. This consists of i,ooo ^lokas, and treats of
grammatical roots. Evidently a Dh^tupaz^ia.

IV. Three so-called Khilas: — (i) Ash zfadhatu, consisting
of I5OOO dokas (on declension and conjugation); (la) Man-^a,
consisting of 1,000 dokas ; (3) U^xMi, consisting of 1,000 dokas.

Boys of ten years learn these parts of grammar, and finish
them after three years.

The explanation of Khila as ‘ nnenltivated pieces of land ’
is no donbt quite correct. We should say appendix or
exeursns instead. But it is difficult to say what I-tsing
could have meant by the second Khila. Mr. Beal called my
attention to a note of Stanislas Julien’s in his index to
Hiouen-thsang, where (vol. iii, p. 514) Men-tse-kia is evi-
dently meant for the same word, and explained by
Hiouen-thsang mentions Men-tse-kia (vol. i, p. 166) as one
of two classes of words, the other class being the U^mdi, He
tells us that Professor Spiegel approved of this interpretation,
but I cannot find any place where Professor Spiegel has
treated of ma7?r/aka and traced it back as a teehiiieal term
to some corresponding sa?;2yna of Sanskrit grammar. I found,
afterwards that in 1871 I had consulted my learned friend,
Stanislas Julien, on the same subject^ asking him whether
Men-tse-kia could possibly be intended for Nirukta or
]Srigha?2^u. He wrote on the first of December, 1871,
regrette de vous dire que je ne suis pas en mesure de repondre
parfaitement aux difKrentes questions de votre lettre. Dans
ma Methode de transcription (p. le second mot de Men-
tse-kia represente £?a dans pa?2^^aka et <iAa dans viriuMaka,
mais il y a loin de E k Nirukta/

What I-tsing I’eally says, according to Mr. Kasawara’s
translation, is : — ^ MaifyJa treats of the formation of words by
means of combining (a root and suffix, or suffixes). One of
many names for tree, for instance, is vnksha in Sanskrit
(that is to say, the word vfiksha is made up of vriksh and a).
Thus a name for a thing is formed by mixing the parts

RENAISSANCE OF SANSKRIT LITERATURB. S45

of inore than twenty sentences (or feet of .doka). Ufmli is
nearly the same, with a few differences, such as what is full
in the one is mentioned in brief in the other, and vice vemi!

Mr. Kasawara informed me that Ma«i;a may be meant for
ma^^&, possibly for ma^^^^aka, but I do not see that even this
would help us much. M-d^nd means to adorn, is used for

cream on milk, also for gruel, hut all this, even if we admitted
the meaning of mixing, would not yield us a technical name
for the formation of words by means of joining a suffix with
a root. At all events, I have never met with mmd^ or any
of its derivatives, in that technical sense. I thought at one
time that might be meant for Ma/^r/uka, because the

Ma^^/ukeyas were famous for their grammatical works (see
M. M., History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 146), and
one of these might possibly have been used by I-tsing when
studying the Kf^d-anta chapter. But I do not think this
likely, even if, as I am told, the Chinese transliteration should
admit of it.

We now proceed at once to No. V, which is called Vr^’tti
Sutra, a commentary on the foregoing Sutra, We are told
that ‘it is the best among the many commentaries. It
contains 18,000 .ylokas, citing the words of the Shtras, and
explaining intricate matters very clearly. It exposes the
laws of the universe and the precepts of heaven and man.
Boys of fifteen begin to study this commentary, and under-
stand it completely in five years. This commentary is the
work of the learned &ydditya, who was endowed with great
ability. His literary talent was so excellent that he under-
stood matters of literature hearing them once, and did not
require to be told twice. He revered the three venerable ones,
and performed all religious duties. Since his death it is
nearly thirty years.'

If we take the lowest date for I-tsing’s work, viz. 690 a.d.
(because be mentions tbe usurpation which took place in that
year), he would have been four years, as he says, in Si-ri-
fa-sai, and thirteen in India, when he wrote the thirty-fourth
chapter of his work ; and there is no reason why he should
not have known, and, if he cared, have been able to avseertain
the exact date of the death of the author of one of the most

346 • KOT'ES AND' iLLUSTRATIONS. . :

famotis grammars of that time, moreover a grammar which
he recommends all true students, coming from China to
India, to learn by heart. On the whole, his description of
that grammar agrees well with the Kd^ikS. Vntti, and it is
almost impossible to imagine that he should have fixed by
accident or fraud on the real name of one of the authors of
that grammar, ffayaditya. Unless the whole of I-tsing'^s
work can be shown to be a spurious compilation, we are
justified in assuming that he knew a commentary on Pamni’s
Sutras by fey^ditya, and that he believed ffajMitya to have
died not later than 660 A.n.

I-tsing then continues: ‘After having studied this com-
mentary, the students learn composition in prose and in
verse, and devote themselves to logical science (Hetuvidya)
as well as to the Kosha (/Sabda-kosha, or Abhidharma-kosha ?).'
After learning the Li-men-lun (Ny^yadvara-taraka ^astra, as-
cribed to (jina or Dharmapdla) they draw inferences correctly
(Anumana), and after studying the Pan-sliang-kvvan (6^^taka-
mitld) their talents become excellent. Then, being instructed
by their teachers, and instructing others, they pass two or
three years, generally in the monastery of Nalanda in Central
India, or in Valablii in Western India. These two places are
like Aing-ma, Shih-Mu, Lung-man, and JTsue-li (the seats
of learning in China). There eminent and accomplished men
assemble like clouds, and discuss the possibility and impossi-
bility of their opinions ; and having been approved as to their
excellence by the wise, having become famous for their pre-
eminence far and wide, and having made themselves assured
of the sharpness of their own abilities, they go thence to the
Imperial Court to lay down before it the sharp words (of
their intellect). There they present their schemes to show
their (political) talent, being desirous to receive good appoint-
ments. When they are in the place of discussion, they
prove their wonderful cleverness. When they are in the
place of refutation, all their opponents become tongue-bound
and own their shame. Then the sound of their fame makes
the five mountains vibrate, and their renown flows, as it were,
over the four borders. They then receive grants of land, and
Piling hi A rank, and their names, written in white, are cele-

RENAISSANCE OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 347

brated high on the lofty gate. After this they can follow
whatever occupation they like.’

\ Pata%ali’s Mali^ubh^sliya.

I-tsing then returns to the Vntti Sutra^, i. e. the Kfmka
Vntti, and says : ' There is a commentary on it, entitled /fdnxi,
containing 24,000 ,ylokas. It is a work of the learned Pataw-
,^ali, and explains clearly that commentary (V//tti) by illus-
trating accurately its meaning, and inquiring into its small
details. Advanced scholars learn it in three years, and the
labour is similar to that of learning the JOim-tshu and the
Yih-kmg (ill China).’

As JCur/^i IS a name for commentary, and Pata%ali is ac-
tually called Kumikrk, the author of the KAvnij there can
be little doubt, if any, that I-tsmg is here speaking of
Pata%ali’s Mah^bhashya. It does not follow, however, that
he considered Pata%ali’s Mah^bhashya as more recent than
the Kit^ika, though it is not impossible.

Bhartnhari.

I-tsing then continues : ‘ Next, there is the Bhartnhari-dis-
course, a commentary on the foregoing JTurwi, the work of
the great scholar Bhartnliari. It contains 25,000 *‘lokas,
which treat of the principles of human affairs and of gram-
matical science, and relates also the source of the rise and
fall of many families. Bhartnhari was intimately acquainted
wdth (the principles of the doctrine of) “ Only Knowledge ”
(vidyamatra), and well versed in logic (lit. in the reason, hetu
and in the example, iidaharawa). This scholar was very
famous throughout the five divisions of India, and his virtues
were known everywhere. He believed deeply in the ‘^Ihree
Jewels,'*’ and meditated on the Twofold Voidness.” Having
desired (to embrace) the excellent religion, he belonged to
the priestly order, but, overcome by worldly desires, he re-
turned again to the laity. Thus he seven times became a
priest, and seven times returned to the laity. Unless one

348

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

believes well in tlie truth, of cause and effect, one cannot act
like him. He wrote the following verse with, self-reproach ;

‘‘ Through attachment I returned to the laity,

Being free from desire I again wear the priestly cloaks.

Why do those two things play with me like a child ?

He was contemporaneous with Dharmap§,la.’

This Dharmapala was most likely the teacher of Mlabhadra,
who was an old man when he received Hiouen-thsang at
NManda in 633. Dharmapala’s name is mentioned in con-
nection with a grammatical work, the xSabdavidya-sai>??.yukta
.mstra (sangraha ^astra), and his time would therefore well
agree with Bhartf?hari’s time, supposing that, as I-tsing says,
he died 650 A. D.

I-tsing goes on to tell some other stories about Bhartrfhari
which make it not unlikely that he is speaking of Bhartrihari,
the author of the three Patakas on Kama (love), Niti (disci-
pHne)j and Vair%ya (tranquillity). ‘ Once,’ he says, ‘ Bhar-
trihari was a priest, living in a monastery. Overcome by
worldly desires, he was disposed to return to the laity. Yet
he remained firm, and asked a student to get a carriage ready
at the outside of the monastery. A man asked the cause,
“ It is,’’ he replied, “ the place where one performs meritorious
actions, and it is designed for the dwelling of those who keep
the moral precepts. Now passions already predominate within
me, and I am incapable of following the excellent law. One
such as I am should not intrude into an assembly of the
priests from every quarter.” Then he returned to be a lay
devotee (upasaka), and, wearing a white garment, continued
to exalt the true religion in the monastery,’

‘ It is forty years since his death.’

‘There is besides, the Vakya-rdiscourse (Vakyapadika),
which contains 700 dokas, and. 7,600 (words) in its explana-
tion. It is also Bhartnharrs work, a treatise on observation
and inference aeeording to the scriptures.’

As the second work is the Vakyapadiya, we can see in the first
a commentary only on the Mahabhishya by Bhartnhari, i.e. the
Mahabbashya-vyakhya h We might think of the Karikas, which

^ This work exists m the Dukhan, fragments at Berlin,

RENAISSANCE OE SANSKRIT LITERATURE. S49

are mentioned by Taranatba (pref. to Siddhanta-kaumudi, vol.
ii, p. 2) as between Bhartnhari’s commentaTy on the Malia-
bhashya and his Vakyapadiya (also called Vakyapradipa), but
they would probably have been described by a difterent name.

Here then we should have the famous Bhart/vRari, so often
described as the elder brother of king* Vikramaditya in the
first century B.o. as a Buddhist, a man tossed about between
kama and dharma, between the world and the monastery, a
poet, a grammarian, a philosopher, the contemporary of Dbar-
mapala, known, it would seem, to some of the eminent men
whom I-tsing visited in his travels through India, and re-
ported to have died not more than forty years ago, say 650,
that is, shortly after Hiouen-thsang’s return to China. That
there was a Buddhistic flavour about Bhartrdiari’s /Satakas,
has long been perceived ; still, even those who did not believe
in the Augustan Court of Vikramaditya and his brother
Bhartnhari in the first century b.c., hardly ventured to do
more than place him hesitatingly in the first or second century,
instead of the seventh century A. n.

There is one more difficulty which we have to meet.

After having told us all this about Bhartnhari, I-tsing
continues : ‘ Next, there is the Pina or Pida or Vina% It
contains 3,000 verses of Bhartnhari, and 14,000 (words ?) in
its explanation by Dharmapala, an author of treatises. It
fathoms the deep secrets of heaven and earth, and treats of
the philosophy of man. A person who has reached the study
of this work (after having learnt gradually the foregoing
works) is said to know grammatical science very well, and
may be likened to one who has learnt the nine Kings and all
the classics (in China). All those above mentioned are studied
by both priests and laymen, otherwise they cannot be called
well-informed.’

The text from \vhich this translation was made, is very
imperfect, and Mr. Kasawara wishes his rendering to be con-
sidered in many places as tentative only, hoping to publish a
better one as soon as he has returned to Japan, I asked him,
as a mere conjecture, whether it was possible that Pida could
represent Bha^^^^i, and he thought it was just possible, but no
more. It is clear that the book must have been a grammatical

350

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

work, and the Bhaz^^ikavya (or Ravambadiia) may be called a
grammatical work. It is also well known that the authorship
of that poem has frequently been assigned to BhartnharL
Among the various commentators^ Kandarpafakravartin calls
the author Bhartrihari, the book Bhaz^z5i; Vidyavinoda calls
the author Bhartrihari, the son of Nridharasvamin ; Bharata
Mallika calls him Bhartnhari. The oldest manuscript calls
the poet Bha^z^i-brahmai^xa, the son of Nridharasvamin of
Va/abluj the oldest commentator, Gayamahgala, calls him
Bhaz^z^i, Harihara does the same, while Pm?Arikaksha in
his Kalapadipika speaks of him simply as BhazJ/i h Bhao
Daji and Bhandarkar inform us that BhazJd was believed by
some to have been the son of Bhartrihari, and to have lived
under Audharasena of Vafabhi.

After all this, we can well understand that I-tsing should
have been told that the BhaM was the work of Bhartnhari,
always supposing that BhazJd could in Chinese have been
represented by Pida. As to the date of the BhazJz^ikavya we
know very little beyond the fact that its author lived under
&idharasvamin of Va^abhi. Lassen ^ identified this king with
&]dharasena of Va/abhi, the son of Guhasena, 530-545, but
this too is a mere guess, and need not by itself invalidate
I-tsing’s statement.

I may add in conclusion the little we know of BhartHhari
as a grammarian, from Brahmanic sources.

Tarkavai’aspati, in his edition of the Siddhtota-kaumudi
reminds us very properly that Somadeva’s Kathtorit-sagara
is only an extract from the Bnhatkatha, a work in 70,000
/Slokas, supposed to have been composed by Katyayana, and
taught by him to Kambhuti. He then tells the story of
VararuH, called Katyayana, and his fellow-pupils VyMi and
l^knmi. They were all three the disciples of Upavai’sha. Pa^^ini,
the least clever of them, having been vanquished in a disputa-
tion by the others, went to propitiate Ma hade va, and, having
been taught by him, composed a grammar in four parts

^ See Proceedings of the Asiatic Society, Bengal, Aug. 1881.

^ Ind. Alterthumskunde, iii, 512.

* See also /Sabdilrtharatna by T^ran^tha Tarkavjifcaspati, Calcutta, 1852,
Bhamika, p. 2 \ and Z. D. M. G. xiv, 566.

EENAISSANCE OF SANSKEIT LITEEATUEE.

351

(the SCitra-paif/ia, the Gawapaif-^a, the Dhatupai!/ia, and the
Linganusasana), which he afterwards proclaimed before Upa-
varsha. VararuX’i, recognising the excellency of that new
grammar, composed the V^rttika by way of completing and
Liefly explaining it, while NyUi composed a work, called
Sahgraha, consisting of 100,000 /Slokas, intended to explain
by m-guments the principles of Pamni^s grammatical system.
These works became so famous that the Aindra and other
popular grammars of the time fell into disrepute and were

lost.

It is added that Paaini was the son of Dakshi^; that
Vararu/^i was the son of a Br§,hman Somadatta of Kau^ambi
and of Vasudatta, and that, after composing the Brihathathd,
and other works, he became Minister of King Nanda; while
Vya«?i, the son of a Brahman Karambha, dwelt at Vetasa.

Tarkavatepati then quotes another story, taken from the
Vakyapadiya, a work which he ascribes to Bhartrihari, the
elder brother of Vikramaditya. He first states himself that
in the course of time the Sahgraha by VyMi became neglected,
and Pa«ini’s work too had suffered considerable damage, when
the Bhagavat Pata%ali resolved to compose the Mahhbhashya,
containing first the essence of the Sahgraha, namely the SiUras,
Vhrttikas, and the comment, and secondly the arguments
laid down in the Sahgraha^.

But in this form also the system of Phmni was again
neglected, though one copy of the original grammatical work,
made by Ravawa, was preserved in the South on the mountain
Zitrakh^a. This copy was carried off by some Kakshas, in the
o-uise of a Brahman, and given to Vasurata, Zandra and other
teachers, and from them descended to their pupils, Bhartnhari
and others. Bhartrihari explained the Mahabhashya, com-
posed the explanatory Karikhs, and also the Vakyapadiya,
sometimes called Vakyapradipa, consisting of three parts, the
Brahma, Vaky a, and Padakaa^fa®.

^ See Paw. 1, 1 , 20, Karikih in Mali^bhasliya.

This a-rees weU with Kielhom’s correct description of the character of the
Mahabhashya, given in his essay Katyayana and P'

» See Goidstiicker,Pa-«ini, p. 237! Weber. Indisohe Stiidien. v, I 39 . eu/U .
ibid. p. 447 ; Kielhorn, Indian Antiquary, 1874, p. aSs-

352 \ NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS,

He then quotes from Bhartnhari’s VMcjaka^<^a the following
werses : ■ ■ ; :

#irra

trwafrfeTTT Tii^m i

3TMt-§Tg^TH

win’g^ficftr: i

^T%' fW5fTR^ nU

■SBl^ IJMII

® When the Sangraha (of Vya^S) had been lost, having
come down to grammarians who mostly preferred short
manuals, and possessed but a small stock of knowledge,

‘' And when afterwards by the venerable and studious Pata/Z"
yali the MahS^bhashya had been composed, a \vork containing
the original Shtras (viya), and the argumentations,

‘Unfathomable from its depth, and yet almost shallow from
its perfect method then men of small minds were yet unable
to understand it.

‘And when this work of the 5^shi, which contained the
(substance of the) Sangraha, had been perverted by Vaiyi,
iShubhava, and Haryaksha, because (in attempting to explain
it) they followed their own sterile reasoning only,

‘ The tradition of the granamar, which had fallen away from
the disciples of Pata^tyaU, existed in time as a text only
(without being understood) among the people in the South

1

^ Read pariptl^i, in the commentary,

® It is no doubt very easy to discredit the native traditions with respect to
the early literary history of India. They are certainly not historical, in our sense

EENAISSANCE ■ OF . SANSKRIT LITEExiTUEE, 353

^But ZandraMrja and others (Vasurata, etc.) received the
tradition again from Parvata (the mountain Jiitralvil/^a or
Triku2^a?), and following the original Sdtras (vi^a) and the
Bhashja, they made it branch ojff into many schools \

^Then, after having studied the different lines on which
the (grammatical) arguments rest and his own grammatical
system also, the Guru (Zandra or Vasurata) brought to us
this resume of old grammars.’

We have now examined a considerable number of names,
famous in Sanskrit literature^ most, in fact, of the Mahlikavis
and the Mahakavyas, and we have seen, I think, that not one
of them could be referred to a date beyond the fifth century
A.D. KMidasa, formerly represented as the contemporary of
Augustus, has become the contemporary of Justinian, and the
very books which were most admired by Sanskrit students as
specimens of ancient Indian poetry and wisdom, have found
their natural and rightful place in the period of a literary
renaissance, coinciding with a period of renewed literary
activity in Persia, soon to be followed there, as later on in
India, by the great Mohammedan conquests.

I have confined myself chiefly to what used to be called the
art poetry of India, nor could I attempt to examine here the
whole of our post-Vedie literature, partly for want of space,
partly for want of knowledge.

There was no necessity, ebnsideriug what our immediate
object is, for going beyond the ninth century, for it is not
likely that any literary works that can be referred to so late a
date, would ever be claimed for the four blank centuries
between loo b.c. to 300 a.d.

of tlie word, but, on the other hand, they possess this merit that, as a rule, they
are not iuTented with a purpose, or intended to support any preconceived
system. What purpose, for instance, could the author of the Uttara-karida of
the Bam^yana (sect. 36, vv. 44 seq.) [this curious passage was pointed out by
Muir, Sanskrit Texts, iv, p, 490] have had in saying that Harminat, when he
was studying grammar, studied it, Sa-sUtrawHtty-arthapadam mahartiiam sa-
sahgraham, that is, according to the commentary, ‘ the Mahubhashya (Pata%ali),
containing the Sfitras, the commentary, and the V^rttikas, and the Sahgraha
(Vyadi),’ thus making the Eamaya^a,>at' all events, more modem than Vyadi !

^ See Kielhorn, Indian Antiquary, 1876, p. 245.

A a

354

NOTES ANB ILLUSTEATIONS.

In the eighth century we enter already on the age of com-
mentaries and glosses. We have /Sankara^ the great commen-
tator of the Vedanta Shtras, born in 788, and he was preceded
by Govinda and Gau^apMa^, to whom a commentary on the
Si,hkhya-ktoika is ascribed. If we may accept BurnelFs con-
jectiire, Bhavasvamin, the commentator of the Baiidhayana
Sutras, belonged to the same age, though I must confess
that his arguments do not seem to me quite convincing^.

Epic Poems.

Nor have I said anything of the two great epic poems, the
Mah^bharata and Bamaya^^a, beyond noting their being men-
tioned by name among the popular literature of the sixth
and seventh centuries. We want a great deal more of truly
scholarlike work^, and a great deal IcSkS of truly unscholarlike
theories on the Mahabharata and Ramaya^^a, before any clear
light will dawn on the sources, the growth, and the final
redaction of these Indian epic cycles. But whatever date
may in the end he assigned to these poems, as we now have
them, or to their first collection, or to their gradual augmen-
tation, our views on the literary blank between too b.c. and
300 A.n. could hardly be affected thereby. Epic poetry, as
we know, if it is popular, and not artificial, like that of KMi-

^ Burnell, Catalogue (1870), p. 13, says that Madhava quotes Bhaskara Misra’s
commentary on the Black Ya^ur-veda, and that the Pandits place him 400 years
before Sayawa. Bhaskara, again, quotes not only the M^nava-dharma-sastra, and,
what is more important, the last book of it (xii, 100), but also Bhavasvamin, the
commentator of the BaudhS,yana Kalpa Shtras, ‘ who may therefore have lived
in the eighth century ’ (Cat. p. 26). It is well known that Sayawa also wrote a
commentary on Baudhiyana (Cat. Southern Division, Bombay, fasc. i, p. 8), and
that in his Yagrwatantra-sudhanidhi, which gives the Adhvaryava as well as
the Hautra and Audg^tra of the principal sacrifices, he chiefly follows Bau-
dhayana. He there calls himself the son of Mayawarya, and the brother
(sahodara) of Madhav&rya. See also Buhler, Sacred Books, of the East, vol.
xiv, p. xHL

^ Adolf Holtzmann, Agni, nach den Vorstellungen des Mahabharata, 18 78 ;
Arjuna, ein Beitrag zur Reconstruction des Mahabharata, 1879; XJber das
alte indische Epos, 1 88 i j tjber das Mahabharata. Weber, tjber das Rama-
ya?^a, 1870. K. T. Telang, Was the R^m^yajm copied from Homer? 1872; R.
G. Bhandarkar, Considerations of the date of the Mahabhfirata, Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay, x, p. 8 1(187 2).

RENAISSANCE -OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 355

dasa, may live on among the people, when all other literary
activity has ceased. It forms, so to say, the literary bread
and water, without which no nation can long subsist. What
we want to know is to what period the work of Vyasa, the
Diaskeuast, can be ascribed, how many such Vy‘5sas were
employed in giving some kind of form to the enormous masses
of floating epic poetry in India, and lastly, how much should
he ascribed to their individual genius, particularly in the case
of Valmiki, in what we now admire in the two great national
epics of India, the Ramaya^^a and Mahabharata h I ought to
add, that I do not think that hitherto any facts or arguments
have been produced to justify us in admitting any Greek
influences in the growth of epic poetry in India, still less any
Christian influences in the production of that famous episode
of the Mahabharata which is known under the name of the
Bhagavadgita Upanishads.

Popular Stories.

And what applies to epic poetry, applies also to what we
call Folk-lore. No people is ever without popular stories, and
no country was probably richer in them than India. It has
lately become the fashion to ascribe all these popular stories
in India to a Buddhistic source, nor can there be a doubt of the
truth of Benfey’s great discovery that the fables which we
find collected in the Hitopade^a, the Pawiatantra, and similar
works, belonging to the Renaissance period of Sanskrit litera-
ture, presuppose Buddhistic collections of them. But that is
very different from saying that the Buddhists invented them.
The Buddhists used them, improved them, added to them, but
they invented them as little as the brothers Grimm invented
‘ Rumpelstiltzchen.’ There is one Buddhist eolleetion of
so-called ffataka-stories, in Sanskrit, the date of which can
be fixed in the fourth century a. n. It is ascribed to Arya-
»?ura ; and another work of the same author is stated to have
been translated in the year 434 A. n. We also know that the

^ The occurrence of the name of Vyasa and Yaimlki in the Lahk^vatlra is
of interest, but the date of the chapter in which they occur is doubtful,

A a 2

356

NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS,

fame of these stories had reached Persia at the time of Khosrci
Nushirvan ( 53 1~579 >.!>•)» Barz&i to India

to bring them to his Court and translate them into Pahlavib
But the original from which Barzdt translated has not jet
been discovered, and the Brahmanie collections of fables which
we possess, the Paii&tantra, Hitopade^a, etc., are of a later
date.

The Katha-sarit'Sagara, again, by Somadeva, is as late as
the beginning of the twelfth century, having been written to
console Queen Sdryavati, the mother of King Harsha of
Ka^mira, on the death of her son who was killed iioi a. n.
It should be remembered, however, that Somadeva too did
not invent, did not even claim to have invented, the tales
collected in his ‘Ocean of the Rivers of Stories,’ and that
their existence can probably be traced back to the time of
P^wini.

As this is of importance with regard to certain historical
or semi-historical statements contained in Somadeva’s work,
it may not be out of place here to explain why I con-
sider some of them quite as trustworthy as, for instance,
Kalha^a’s History of Ka^mira, so far as it bears on early
times. It is easy to say that what Somadeva tells about P§,^ini
and his friends is only a story. To me ‘ only a story ^ carries
more weight than history made on purpose, such as we know
Kalhawa^s history to have been. We must take Indian litera-
ture as it is, and try to make the best of it. And in
doing this we must, as much as possible, divest ourselves of
the idea that Hindu writers always wish to impose upon us,
and to make everything as old as possible. First of all, these
writers never thought of us ‘outer barbarians,’ in writing
down what they knew, or what they imagined they knew, of
their ancient history. Secondly, what we should call ‘ old,’
would not seem at all old to them, to whom ten thousand
years more or less is a mere nothing.

My impression is that Somadeva, when telling us about
Pa?am, VyaJi, and Katy&yana, tells us simply what he knew,

^ See Selected Essays, vol. i, p. 527.

RENAISSANCE OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 357

and that what he knew came to him from tradition, which in
India was more tenacious than anywhere else. We kiiow^
besides, thanks chiefly to the researches of Burnell and Biihler,
that Somadeva 'was not left entirely to depend on tradition.
He tells ns that his book contains the essence of the Bfihat-
katha, written originally in the Pai,^aii dialect by Giw^ai//ya,
and that it differs from its original in language only, and by
its being more condensed h The story of Gu?^a(fttya is no
doubt legendary too, but it need not therefore be considered
as a pure invention, so far as Gmikd/ijdi himself is concerned.

We are told that originally the stories of the seven Vid-
yadhara Zakravartin’s or Fairy Kings were told by Sm to
Parvati. They were overheard by an attendant, Pushpadanta,
who repeated them to his wife GayL For this he was cursed
by Parvati and condemned to be born as a man, and his
brother Malyavat, who interceded for him, received the like
sentence. Afterwards Parvati relented so far that she decreed
that Pushpadanta’s curse should end when he had met a
Pi^'afe, called Ka^^abhuti, and told him the stories; while
Malyavat should be free when he had heard the Bnhatkathfa
from the mouth of Ka^zabhuti, and spread them over the
earth.

Pushpadanta, we are then told, was horn as Vararu^i
Katyayana, and became a great grammarian and Minister of
Yogananda, the last of the Nandas. Having communicated
the stories to the Pua^a Kai>eabhiiti, he returned to his
heaven.

Some time later Malyavat, who as Gu^^Miya of Pratish-
??/^ana had become Minister of Satavdhana, went with his two
pupils, Gu^^adeva and Nandideva, to the dwelling of Kfma-
bhuti, and received from him the seven stories in the Pai.?A/^f
dialect. Then he wrote them down with his own blood in
100,000 Mokas each, and sent them to Satavahana. Satava-
hana, however, rejected them ; upon which Gu^^^ar/Aya burnt
six of the stories; The seventh only was preserved, and
Satavahana, after studying it with the help of Gu^^adeva and

^ See Biihler# Indian Antiquary, 18^2, p. 302.

358

NOTEB AKD ILLUSTRATIONS.

Nandideva, wrote the introduction to it, likewise in the Pai.^ali
dialect.

Dr. Fitz-Edward HalD was the first to show that this legend
was not entirely a legend, for Dmdm in his K^vy^darm (1, 38),
mentions a Bfihatkatha written in a Bhuta (Pi^ala) dialect ;
and Subandhu, the author of the V^^avadatt^, knows a Brihat-
kath 4 divided into Lambakas. Da^^iin, we know, is at least as
old as Ba?2a, the court-poet of Harshavardhana in the seventh
century, while Vasubandhu must be older than Bana, being
praised by him in his Harshateitra.

Thus it may be accepted as a fact that a Brihatkath^,
in a Bhuta dialect, and divided, like Somadeva’s work, into
Lambas or Lambakas, existed at least before the seventh
century of our era*

Nor is this all. Dr. Biihler, during his literary researches
in Gujarat^ discovered a work very similar to the Kathasarit-
sagara of Somadeva, namely, the BnhatkathS,-ma%ari of
Kshemendra Vyasad§.sa^. This Kshemendra wrote during
the second and third quarters of the eleventh century, and he
too seems to have based his own work on the Pai^a/ii text of the
Brihatkath^, ascribed to He says ^ " ^Sarva pro-

claimed it first ; K^^^abhuti heard it from the Ga^?-a (Piishpa-
danta-VararU/^i), and told it to GnnMhja, who delivered it in
turn to his pupils and to SMavahana. The story which thus
had come to be written in the Pi.^a^a language gave trouble to
the readers, and was for this reason rewritten in Sanskrit.’
Although Somadeva wa§ perhaps two or three generations
later than Kshemendra, Dr. Biihler has shown that he could
not have copied from Kshemendra, but that both must have
used the same original in Pak^M or Prakrit.

We thus arrive at the very unexpected result that the
stories told by Somadeva in the twelfth century were known,
at all events, before the seventh century, and, if we could
accept the historical character of Satavahana and Yogananda,
of K^?^abhuti and VararUiii-Katyayana, in the first century

^ Y^savadatfc^, pref. pp. 22-24; Biihler, l.c,, p. 303.

® Journal of .the Royal Asiatic Society of Bombay, 1877, p, 46.
^ Biihler, Indian Antiquary, 1872, p. 307.

RENAISBANCE' OF SAKSKBIT LITERATURE. 359

A, D.; or even, it may he, before tbe end of tbe Nanda dynasty.
Without as yet wishing, however, to make Katyayana-Vara-
mki, the original promulgator of the Seven Stories, the same
person as Katyayana Vararu/ii, the author of the Vdrttikas
and the contemporary of PaT^ini, we may at all events say
this, that Somadeva’s much-despised Katha-sarit-sagara carries
really as much historical weight as Kalha^m’s Rliyatarangi';zi^
the Chronicle of Kashmir, 1148-57. Kalha'/m wrote in the
middle of the twelfth century, and was therefore later than
Somadeva, What his ideas of history were has been well
shown by Dr. Biihler^ who writes : ^ An author who boasts
that his narrative resembles a medicine, and is useful for
increasing and diminishing statements of previous writers
regarding kings, place^ and time, must always be sharply
controlled;, and deserves no credit whatever in those portions
of his work where his narrative shows any suspicious figures
or facts.’

PMlosopMcal Sutras.

A second class of literature which I have not touched upon
consists of the philosophical Sutras. These were and are still
supposed by many scholars to belong to the centuries preced-
ing our era. All I can say is, I know, as yet, of no sound
arguments, still less of any facts in support of such assertions.
'Neither in the\Pali nor in the Sanskrit canon of the Buddhists
have any references to or c[uotations from the six collections
of philosophical Sutras been discovered.

It is different with the philosophical systems themselves.
The names of the three Vedas, possibly of four, such words also
as Vedanta and Upanishad(upanisa), and Yoga, occur in Pali,
but they do not prove the existence of our Vedanta or our
Yoga Sutras. In the Buddhist Sanskrit canonical books there
are constant references to tirthaka or heretical systems of phi-
losophy. The names of the founders of six of these are mentioned
again and again, but we hear nothing of literary works ascribed
to Badarayawa, the founder of the Uttara-mimtesa, of ffaimini,

^ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bombay, 1877, p, 58.

^60

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

the founder of the P6rva"-miraa???-sl, Kapila.the founder of the
Sahkhya, Pata'%ali, the founder of the Yoga^ Ka^^ada, the
founder of the Vai^eshika, and Gotama, the founder of the
Nyaya. The occurrence of the names of Ka^ada, Kapila,
Akshap&da and Bnhaspati in the Laiikavatara is curious, but
requires verification. What is still more curious is that in the
literary works which we have referred to the sixth, seventh, and
eighth centuries no actual quotations from the Sdtras of the
six Dar^anas have yet been met with. It is true, that Varaha-
mihira mentions Kapila and Ka^abhuy^, and that Ba«a in his
Harsha&rita knows of Aupanishadas, Kapilas, and Ka^adas^,
but even this does not establish the existence of the Sdtras,
containing their doctrines. And yet we know now, thanks to
Mr.K. B. Pathak (Ind. Ant. 1 882, p. 174) ^ the date of Sankara
Akarya ^j to whom most, if not all of these Sutras must have
been known. He was born 788 a. n., and he must have lived
to a considerable age, if he accomplished all that is ascribed to
him. The date 39:^1 Kali, i. e. Sao a.b., cannot be intended
for the date of his death, but is meant for that of his becoming
a Muni, which we are told took place in his 32ind year
(dvatrk^^e).

The first tangible evidence of the existence of a system-
atic treatise on any of the six systems of India would
really seem to be the Chinese translation of the Suvan^a-
saptati-.^astra, that is, the Sahkhya-karika, with a com-
mentary It is said by the Chinese translator to have been
composed by the Rishi Kapila, a heretic, and to explain the
twenty-five truths (tattvas^). Towards the end of the work
it is stated that there were 60,000 gathas composed by

^ BHhatsamliita, ed. Kern, pref. p, 29,

' ^ Vasavadatta, ed. Hall, pref. p. 53.

^ He quotes from a MS. tbe following list: Sivsi, (Sankara), Visliwu, Brak-
man, Vasish^/ia, Sakti, Parasara, Vy§sa, jSuka, G-audlapada, Govinda, jS'ankara.
He also mentions Ramanuga as the pupil of Yadavaprakasa, and Madhva as
pupil of Alyutapreksha.

^ It is his descent from 5 ^iva which is alluded to in calling him &hkar^-
/raryanavavataram.

^ I am informed by Mr. Kasawara that this commentary resembles the com-
mentary of Gaudap^da, but that the name of Gaudap^da is not mentioned.

® See Sankhya-s8.ra, ed. Hali/pref. pp. 6, 42.

BENAISSANCE OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 361

Pailia^iHia (Kapileya), the pupil of Asuri, the pupil of Eapila,
and that afterwards a Brahman, named tt9vara Knslr/m,
selected 70 gathas out of the 60,000. As this work was
translated into Chinese by iian-ti, i. e. Paramartha, during
the A’/^an dynasty, 557-'589, we have proof positive that
l.$vara Kfishm’s work, such as we now possess it, and a
commentary, belonged at least to the sixth century, and that
the author, who has actually been identified with Kalidasa^,
may at all events have been a contemporary of the great poet.

But it follows by no means that what we call the Sahkhya
Sutras must have existed before that time. The metrical
Karika seems in this case older than the Sdtras, and where
there are literal coincidences between the two, it has been
shown that the metrical version is the more original

With regard to the Vakeshika also, we can prove the
existence of at least one work, the Vai^yeshika-nikaya-dampa-
dartha-^astra, composed by (?/ltoa/randra previous to Hiouen-
thsang’s time, because he translated it into Chinese, and his
translation is still in existence. In this case, however, the
Sanskrit original has not yet been discovered.

It certainly would he going too far were we to conclude
from the fact that Hiouen-thsang did not translate and did not
even mention the authoritative Vakeshika Sdtras by Ka^^ada
that therefore they did not exist at his time. Much less
should I venture to apply this line of argument to the Sarva-
dar^ana-sangraha. Still we ought to take note of it. Hiouen-
thsang evidently knew the Vedanta-philosophy, for he speaks
of Aupanishadas, which can only be an older name of the
followers of the Vedanta. He tells us that he studied ISlyaya
under a Brahman, and he mentions several works on Nyaya,
which were written by Buddhists : —

I. Nyaya-dvfira-taraka-^astra by ffiiia Bodhisattva ( 1 , 188)
or Nagarj/una (i, lo:^), explained by Dharmapala (i, 191).

2 ,, Ny&yanusto-^astra by Sanghabhadra (i, 93 ; ii, 183 ;

edited by Vasubandhtt (i, 108).
lie mentions the Sankhya and Vaweshika systems by name

2 See SMkhya-eara, ed. Hall, pref, p. 29. ® Hall, I c., p. 12.

® See above, p. 312.

362

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS'

(i, ^^25), and relates tow Gu^^amati had defeated a famous stu-
dent of the Sankliya-philosophj, called Madhava (ii, 442).

It is difficult to say anything about the Yoga-philosophy,
because that name was adopted by the Buddhists themselves.
6^ina Bodhisattva was a teacher of Yoga (iii, 1 10), and Hiouen-
thsang’s chief object in going to India was to study there (i,
144) that very Yoga-philosophy which he had studied already
in China from such books as the Saptadam-bhumi-^astra (by
Maitreya Bodhisattva^ iii, 109), afterwards called YogaMrya-
bhumi-^Mra (b 13 ; 118). One of the books which he most
carefully studied during his stay in India was the YogaMrya-
bhumi-^fetra-karika (i, 21 1).

If we turn to the literature of the feiiias, we find in the
Kalpasutra (ed. Jacobi, p. 35) only one system of philosophy
mentioned, the ShashzJi-tantra, and this is explained by the
commentator (p. loi) as Kapiliya-.sastra, so called on account
of the sixty pad§.rthash In other passages, however, this Sha-
shzS-tantra is mentioned by the side of the Kapila, the system
of Kapila, and it becomes extremely doubtful, therefore, whether
the two were originally identical, or whether the Kapila system
is a later form of the Shashj^i-tantra^. In the Anuyogadvto-
^astra, quoted by Weber, the principal systems of philosophy
mentioned are: Vaweshika, Buddha-yasana, Kapila, Lok^yata,
ShashzJitantra, while in the later Sha<^daryana-samuMaya the
author refers to the Sahkhya,Vai5eshika, Naiyayika, ffaiminiya,
Bauddha, and Gaina systems^;

It is probably in the Sanskrit' literature of the Buddhists
that we find the earliest mention of these systems^. Thus
we read in the Lalita-vistara, p. 179, that the young Bodhi-
sattva had to study, besides many other subjects, the
Sahkhya, the Yoga, the Vai^eshika, the Barhaspatya, the

^ See also Bliagavatl (ed. Weber), ii, pp. 246-648.

^ Aecording to Dr, Leumaun, the Berlin MS. of the NandisUtra leaves out
Kavila. The Calcutta edition has it, and the Aupapatika-SUtra (§ 76) mentions
Hhe followers of the Slihkhya and the Yoga-philosophy, and of Kapila, &c.’

® Hall, Bibliography, p. 165. In Merutunga's Sha<idarsanaviHra the six
systems discussed are: Gaina, Ba,uddha, Sankhya, Gaiminiya or Mlmams^,
Auldkya or Kawilda, and Gautamiya. See Journal of Royal Asiatic Society
of Bombay, ix, p. 147.

* See above, p. 1 7.

•BENAISSANCE OF SANSKRIT LITERATURE^ 363

Hetuvidya^ &e. But again, these are but titles of philo-
sophical doctrines, and they cannot strictly be used to prove
the existence of the six collections of Sdtras which at present
are considered as the classical text-boobs of these systems.
Similar names, as is well known^ occur in the Upanishads and
Brahma?zas, and the first germs of the later growth of philo-
sophical thought may be discovered even in the hymns of the
Veda. But all this does not concern us at present, and with
regard to what does concern us, namely, the date of the six
Darsanas, as we now possess them, all we can say is that, as
yet, nothing has been produced to prove that they were com-
posed previous to 300 a. n.

Metrical Xiaw-books.

There remains one more class of Sanskrit literature which
will no doubt be appealed to by many Sanskrit scholars as
being post-Vedic, and yet decidedly more ancient than the

^ In iTu Fa-hu’s translation (a.d. 308) the whole paragraph is left out. This
does not, however, prove that it did not exist, as passages referring to subjects
of no immediate interest to Buddhists, or, it may be, unintelligible to them, are
sometimes passed over by the translators. In Bivakara’s translation (A.B. 683) we
find certain portions of this paragraph rendered into Chinese, but others likewise
left out. Among the subjects in which the Bodhisattva excelled, are mentioned :
‘Quick jumping, racing, wrestling (langhite, prQ,k^alite), writing, seals, counting-
nunibers (lipi-mudra-ga^xanasankhy^), archery, riding, going on the water,
cleverly managing horse and chariot, and (fishing with) a hook and line (salam-
bhadhanurvede ^avite, plavite, asvap:r^sh^/^e, rathe, ahku.sagraliap^mgrahe) ;
Matma (?), gambling (akshakric^a), physiognomy or expression of face (kfivya-
vyakarane 1), drawing (grantharafcite rfipe), carving (rO-pakarmayii), playing on
musical instruments (vlffayam), singing and dancing (vadyaiw'itye), theatrical
performance (gitapat/dta akhyate), shampooing (sa?r^va,hite), changing several
precious things, magic (niawirage vastrarage muyakrite), divining a dream
(svapnadhyaye), the marks of six kinds of animals (cows, horses, sheep, pigs,
dogs, and fowls), and several mixed sorts of polite accomplishments (strtlakshawe,
purushalakshawe, asvalakshawe, hastilakshane, golakshane, apalaksha?ie, mimto
lakshane) ; the /S’astras of Keita (kaitabhesvara-laksha^te), Ni-ken-cizu (Nir-
ghaniJau), Pu-ra-na (Purawe), I-M-ka-sha (Itihase), I-da (Yede), Ni-ro-H
(Nirukte), Shik-sha (sikshayam), Shi-ka (Sahkhye?), Bi-shi-ka (Vawshike),
[could Kriyakalpe be meant for (?aiminlya?] A-ta (arthavidyayam), king or
kings (Barhaspatye ?), A-bi-ri (?), all birds and beasts (mngapakshirate), the
science of sound (sabdavidySyto ?), the science of cause (hetuvidyayam). All
the polite accomplishments of men and gods he thoroughly understood.’

364

NOTES AND ILLUSTBATIONS.

fonrtli century A. D.j namely, the metrical Dliarma^s-astras^ and
more particularly those of Mann and Y^/iiavalkyao
It is generally supposed that Manu was a purely mythological
name, that it meant measurer, and therefore law-giver, that
it naturally became the name for moon, as the measurer of
times and seasons, and lastly a recognised name for man in
general^ the measurer, the thinker. There is some truth in
all this, but it is curious nevertheless that Manu, the law-
giver, often discloses some personal traits of character even in
the vague traditions which are related of him.

When we read in the Eig-veda, VIII, 30, of ^ the thirty-
three gods, the gods of Manu/ we ought no doubt to take
Manu as a representative of man in general. Yet, the definite
number of his gods, the Thirty-three, leaves an impression
that even here an individual man, or rather an individual
clan, was meant.

When we read in the Taittiriya-Sa?^hita, II, 10, 2,^ What-
ever Manu said is medicine we have again a kind of
suspicion that Manu must be more than a general name for
mankind, and that the saying possibly refers to a sage whose
utterances were remembered and recorded.

In the Brahma^'ms, Manu, as saved from the Deluge^, is no
doubt a mythical character, but as the father of Ni;bhane-
dish^y^a, and as laying down the law on inheritance (avava-
ditn), the historical element begins again to betray itself

It has been supposed that even our Manu Svayambhuva is
sometimes referred to as a legal authority in very early times.
There is a curious passage in the Nirukta (III, 4) in which
Manu Svayambhuva is quoted, and again on the very subject of
inheritance. It is true the passage comes in rather incon-
gruously, but unless we start with the a priori conviction that
there can be nothing incongruous in an ancient Sanskrit
author, we can hardly off-hand reject the passage as a forgery.
The verse (^loka) quoted says: ‘ The share of sons, of boys and
girls, is the same according to law, Manu Svayambhuva said
so in the beginning of the creation.’

^ M. M., History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 89.

® Ibid. p. 425. 3 Ibid. p. 423.

EENAISBANCE OF SANSKRIT LITERATUEl, 305 '

" This seems indeed to imply the existence of a legal au-
thority under the name of Manu Sv^yamhliuvaj hut though the
wording strongly reminds us 'of the phraseology of our Manu,
the doctrine is not his, unless we completely twist the mean-
ing of Manu IX, 105, where it is said that the eldest brother
takes possession of the patrimony, while the others live under
him, as they lived under their father. This would hardly
he the same thing as that all children take equal shares as
heirs. The Nirukta goes on quoting the opinions of other
teachers : ^ Some say that daughters do not (inherit). Hence
it is known that a male is an heir (dayMa), not a female.
Therefore they expose a female, not a male child. Females
are given away, sold, and exposed, not males ; though some say,
males also, as we see in the case of -tS'unai^epa/

I pointed out (see p. 2^35) that Manu, a real Maim, seems
to have had something to do with the first introduction
of &Mdhas, and in a passage of the jSahkh&yana QrihjA
Sutras (II, 16) Manu'^s name is again quoted in support of the
doctrine that at ^'rMdhas, or, more accurately, at a sacrifice in
which the Pitns are the deities, also at a Madhuparka and a
Soma sacrifice, the killing of cattle is allowed. This is not
only the teaching of Manu, but the very words, as here
quoted by 5 finkh^yana, have been incorporated in our text of
Manu (V, 41). There are many more such references to a
Manu\ as well as quotations, both in prose and in verse, occur-
ring in the Dharmasutras and embodying Manuks own peculiar
doctrines, so tbat we can hardly doubt that there was, during
the BiAlimam and Sdtra periods, some real Manu, or some
real clan claiming descent from Manu, and possessing some
collection of legal saws.

It is well known also that the Mahabharata contains many
verses ascribed to Manu, some of which form part of dur
Dharma<sastra, others do not.

But when we come to the question whether a metrical
Manava Dharma^astra, or a Bhfigu-samhita in twelve books,
is ever appealed to either during Vedic times, or in early
Buddhistic writings where there was so much opportunity for

^ See Biihler, Sacred Books of the Bast, voL xiv, pp. xvii-xx.

366

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

it, or even during the first centuries of the Eenaissanee period,
our answer must be in the negative^

: I am willing to admit that Ba^a'^s mention in the Harshay&arita
of Dharma^astrins^ and Paura^^ikas proves the existence of eer»
tain Dharma^astras and Pura^eas in the seventh century a. d. I
may admit even that the fact of Varahamihiraqnotiiig from Mann
a number of ^lokas, proves his knowledge of a Manu-Dharma-
5astra, though certainly not of the one which we possess. But it
is well known that what we call the Manu-sa^hita is in reality
a Bhngu-sa?^hit 4 ^, and certainly the spirit of the lines quoted
by Varahamihira as coming from Manu, is very different from
the spirit that pervades our Manu-samhita in its chapter on
Women. Nor is it likely that these verses, a string of regular
^lokas, were taken from the Manava-dharma Sutras, the cha«
racter of which has lately been so well described by P. von
Bradke in his careful essay, ‘ Uber das Manava Gnhya Sutra.’
They may be taken^ however, from earlier editions of the Manu-
sa??^hita, which are often quoted under the names of Vnddha
and Bnha^ Manu^.

And here it should be remembered that even Vnddha Manu
was acquainted with the Greek zodiacal signs, for in a passage,
quoted in the commentary on the Gobhiliya Gr^hya Sutras, he
speaks of the sun entering the sign of Kanya, i.e. Virgo

Prom whatever source therefore these verses are taken,
they would in no way prove the existence of our twelve
books of Manu at the time of Varahamihira. How much
later than the fourth century a. d. our Manu-sa??&hita may
prove to be, I do not wish to discuss at present, as, I have
no doubt, that this question will soon be treated by far
abler hands, by Dr. Burnell and Professor Buhler in their
promised translatioBs of Manu. All I am concerned with is
the absence of any proofs of its existence previous to 300 a. d.

^ Hall, Vasavadatt^, pref. 53 .

® See Sankliya-sara, ed. Hall, pref. p, 8 . Pa;l'^7^;a^iikha7^ sUtrakara asuri-
sishya7/,. K^pilam iti prasiddhis tu samprad%a-pravntte7i, Blir^giiproktasam-
iva Maiiusam§.khyA

^ On Vnddka and Brnla^, see Sarvadhikiri’s Tagore Lectures, p. 168 .

^ Madhye va yadi v^yante yatra Eanyam vra^ed raviA
Sapaksha7i sakala^ s^esh^Aai^ sr^ddhaaliodJasakam prati.

NOTE H, p. 137.

TEXTS ON THE DELUGE.

The Varaha or Boar.

Taittiriya-Sar/^hita VII5 I, 5,

Apo va idam %re salilam asit, tasmin praySpatir Ynjdv
bhutv^-^jarat, sa imam apa^yat, iKm varaho bhutvSharat, tam
vitsvakarma bhutv^ vyamar^^.

Saprathata, sa pf ithivy abhavat, tdt pr^tbivyai pr^tbivitvte.
TasyS-m a^ramyat pra^apati>J, sa dev^n asr?yata, v^siln riidr&
adityfo.

Te deva /5 pra^^patim abruvan, pr£ yayamaba iti. So ’bra-
vit I! Hi yMiabfim yiislimaiSs tapas&nksliy evdm t4pasi
pra^dnanam iM/^adhvam iti.

Tebhyo ’gnim ayatanam prayaMiad^ etenS^yatanena ^r&m-
yat^ti. T& ’gmnfiy^taneii‘^^ramyan, te sa^^vatsard gam

asHyanta, tim vdsabhyo rudrebhya aditjAbbya/^ prfya^^/mn,
et^m rakshadhvam iti, iam vasavo rudra aditya araksbanta,

Taittiriya-Erabma?za I, i, 3, 5 seq. : —

Apo vi idam %re salilam ^sit. Teaa pra^apatir amm-
yat ii5fi KathS,m iddm syad iti. So ’pasyat pusbkarapam 4 ?»
tishzf^at. So ’manyata asti vai t£t, yasminn idam Mbitisb^^/^a-
titi. S{i varabo mj)dm kntvopaBytoa^^at. Sa pfitbivim
adlia arkkiiati tasya upabatyodama^yat. Tat piisbkarapame
’yratbayat. Yad ^pratbayat ll6n tat pnthivyai pfitbivitvam.
Abhud ¥a idam iti, tad bbumyai bhdmitvam.

/ 5 atapatha»Brahma?ia XIV, i, a, ii : —

Atha varabavibatam, iyaty agre i.sid itiyatl ha va iyam
agre pntbivy asa prade^amatri. Tam em^lsha iti var^ha

^ See Oolebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays, i, 75; Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts,

368

NOTES AND ILLUSTBATIONS,

Uj^^agliana so ’syM pati>^ pra^^patis tenaivainam etanmi-
tlimiena priye^za dliamna samardhayati kntsnam karoti

The ICtirma or Tortoise.

/Satapatha-Brabmawa VII, 5^ 5* —

Sa yat kbrmo nama, etad vai rtlpaz?z kntva prayapati^
praya asnyata yad asr zyat§,karot tad yad. akarot tasmS.t kurma>^
ka^yapo vai kdrmas tasmad abu/z sarva^ pray§./z ka^yapya
iti 11511. Sa ya;^ sa kurmo ’sau sa Mityai?.

Taittiriya-Ara^yaka I, 23, i : —

Yo rasa/^ so ’pam antarata/^ kurma?;z bbdtam sarpanta^^z tarn
abravitj mama vai tvanmanasa samabhtit. Nety abravit,
pdrvam evabam ihasam iti. Tat purusbasya purusbatvam
iti.

The Annual Deluge.

Plutarcb De Solertia Animalium (ed. Reiske, 10, p. 37) : —

01 }xkv odp fjLvdol^oyoi r<» A€VKakCo)v( (pa(n TTepiGrrepap €k rijs
XdppaKOS d(l>Lepiiprjp^ b'qkcjopia yerecr^at, /xer, etcroo TtdXip

ipbvopLiprjp, evbCas b^, diroTTracrap.

Page 153. The following passage from the Aitareya-Ara^-
yaka III, i, 2, 2, shows that during a heavy rain people used
to say that heaven and earth embraced each other: Tad utapi
yatraitad balavad anudgrzh^zan sandadhad ahoratre varshati
dyav^prithivyau samadhatam ity utapyahui^. See Sacred
Books of the East, vol. I, p. 249 : (^The first half is the earth,
the second half the heaven, their uniting the rain, the uniter
Paryanya.) And so it is when it (Paryanya) rains thus strongly,
without ceasing, day and night together, then they say also,
‘‘Heaven and earth have come together.” ’

NOTE I, p. 194.

ON VARGANYA IN GERMAN.

I am afraid that Slavonic scholars may think that I have
represented the identity of Par^anya and the Lithuanian Per-
kuna as more certain than it really is. Though I have pointed
out one difficulty, namely, the Lithuanian guttural tenuis k
taking the place of a Sanskrit palatal media, I ought perhaps
to have added that the transition of Perkuna into the Old
Slav. Perunu is not free from difficulties either. G. Krek
(Einleitung in die Slavische Literaturgeschiehte, Gratz, 1874,
p. loi) still keeps to the old derivation of Perunu (thunder)
from a root pr, ferire, and looks upon the k as a phonetic
intrusion, as in Lith. arklas= 01 d Slav, oralo. The name
Perkuna, however, seems older than the forms without the k,
for it occurs in the Lithuanian Dainos (Schleicher, Handbueh
der Litauischen Sprache, vol. ii, p. i seq.). In Russian the
name of Perun is mentioned by Nestor (about 1100 a.d.),
while Perkunu still occurs in old Russian documents of the
thirteenth century (Kerk, Lc., p. lor, n. 3). All this is diffi-
cult to explain ; yet Slavonic scholars would hardly feel
inclined to admit two different deities, one Perkunu, the
other Perun. Here we must wait for further researches, par-
ticularly with reference to the phonetic laws of the Slavonic
languages.

But if the identification of Paryanya with Perkuna is not
quite free from doubt, this is much more the case with another
identification of Par^anya with the Gothic fairguni, first
suggested by Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology, and sup-
ported by him, as may be expected, with very powerful
arguments. Fairguni in Gothic means mountain, and Grimm
thinks that the chief mountains, being considered originally
as the seat of the thnnder-god, may after a time have been

B b

370

NOTES AND ILLDSTKATIONS.

called by Ms name, as we speak of tbe Sfc. Bernard, instead of
the Mount of St. Bernard, and that, still later, the name of the
chief mountain may have become the name for mountain in
general. As relics of the proper name he points out Fer-
gunna^ an old name of the Erzgebirge, and firgunia, the tract
of wooded mountains between Ansbach and Ellwangen, etc.
The name of the god, if it had been preserved in Gothic, would
have been Fairguneis, and the existence of that name is con-
firmed by the Old Norse Piorgyn, fern., gen. Fiorgynior, the
goddess of the Earth, the mother of Thor, and by Fiorgynn,
masc., gen. Fiorgyns, the father of Frigg, the wife of Odin,

A young and talented scholar, Professor Zimmer, has lately
supported the same view by some more and very ingenious
arguments, in the Zeitschrift fiir Deutsches Alterthum, Neue
Folge, vol. ii, p. 163 seq. According to him, the Northern
nations formed a feminine deity Mbrgyn by the side of the
masculine Mbrgym. This Mbrgyn, as a feminine, was meant
for the Earth, just as Par^anya’s wife was Pnthivi, the
Earth. 6 d:inn, took the place ol Tyr (Dyaus), and of
the mvlQ Mbrgynn (Paryanya), was the husband oi lord, the
Earth, and became naturally the husband also of Piorgyn,
the Earth, while Fibrgynn himself became absorbed in TMrr.
If therefore TMrr is called the first son of OMmi, this is the
same as Par^anya being called the son of Dyaus, and if
TMrr is called lariar burr 2LnbL Fibrgynjar burr, this is the
same as Paryanya being called the son of Pnthivi, though
being her husband also,

Grimm in his German Dictionary, vol, i, p. 105^, thinks
that Greeks and Romans, changing f into h, represented
Fergunna or Fergunnia by Hercynia, and he traces in the end
both berg and burg back to Paryanya.

NOTE K, p. 227.

ON THE PITEiTS OK FATHERS.

In Manu the belief in the Pitris or Fathers and the rules
for their worship have assumed a most complicated character^
and there are many passages that might be quoted by those
who hold that in India also a belief in the Fathers came first,
and a belief in the Devas followed afterwards. There are
other arguments too that might be used in support of such
a theory, and I wonder they have not been used^ though I do
not think they can be upheld against the mass of evidence on
the other side. The name of the oldest and greatest among
the Devas, for instance, is not simply Dyaus, but Dyaush-pit&,
Heaven-Father, and there are several other names of the same
character, not only in Sanskrit, hut in Greek and Latin also.
Does it not look as if Dyaus, the sky, had become personal and
worshipful, only after he had been raised to the category of a
Pitn, a father, and that this predicate of Father must have
been elaborated first, before it could have been used to com-
prehend Dyaus, the sky, Varu^a, and other Devas ? This
sounds plausible, nor do I deny that there may be some truth
in it. But it is not the whole truth, and nothing, I believe, is
so constant a source of error as this mistaking of some truth for
the whole truth. The Vedic poets believed in Devas, gods,
if we must so call them, literally, the bright ones; Pitris,
fathers; and Manushyas, men, mortals^. Who came first
and who came after is difiicult to say, but as soon as the three
were placed side by side, the Devas certainly stood highest,
then followed the Pitns, and last came the mortals. Ancient
thought did not go so far as to comprehend the three under
one common concept, but it paved the way to it. The mortals,
after passing through death, became Fathers, and the Fathers

^ Atharva-veda X, 6, 33.

B b 2

B 72 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

became tte companions of the DeTas. This answered for
a time — it was some truth, but not the whole truth.

In Manu there is a decided advance beyond this point.
The world, all that moves and rests, we are told (Manu III,
iioi), has been made by the Devas, but the Devas and Danavas
were born of the Pitns, and the Pitns of the ^ishis. The
JSzshis were originally the poets of the Veda, where their
number is given as seven, the Sapta ^ishaya/ 5 ^. How they
came to be placed above the Devas, and above the Pitns, is
difficult to understand ; still so they are, at least at the time
of Manu. He gives even their names and genealogy^.

Manu Hairawyagarbha

His sons, the seven B^shis.

Maxili Ain Kavi(Biingu) Angiras Pulastya VasisMa

Their sons, the Pitn's,

Somasads Agnishv^ttas Barhisbads Somapas Havishmats A^yapas Sukalins
Their descendants.

S^dbyas Devas Daityas Brl-bmawas Ksbafcriyas Vaisyas iS'Mras

He then mentions the Pitns who belong exclusively to the
Brahma^zas :

Agnidagdhas, Anagnidagdhas, Kavyas, Barhishads, Aguish-
vattas, Saumyas.

The first book of Manu tells us of seven Manus (I, 6i).
These were :

Svayambhuva, Svaro^isha, Auttami, Tamasa, Eaivata,
Alkshusha, Vaivasvata,

Svayambhuva Manu is said by Kulldka to have been the
grandson of Brahman or Svayambhd, and would therefore have
to be taken as the son of Vii% (I, 32^). But in another place
(I, 58) we read of Manu Sv%ambhuva receiving the law from
Brahman, and teaching the code to the Munis (A’shis), viz.
Mari/^i and the rest, including Bhf%u. Again, our Manu
Svayambhuva tells us that he first created ten Praylpatis, viz.
MariyJi, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Praietas,
Vasish^Ji^a, Bhngu, Narada,
and that these created the seven Manus.

^ Eig-veda IV, 42, 8. 2 Manu III, 193 and 198.

.^1

OK THE' PITJBiB OB EATHEBS.

973

These Manns are intimately connected with the

the Yngas and Kalpas.

(i) The Knta-Ynga . .
(!^) The Tret§.-Yuga , .

(3) The Dvapara-Yuga .

(4) The Kali-Ynga . .

A Mahayuga . . .

A Mann period

With fifteen intervals
of 1,72^8,000 each .

theory of

1,7^^8,000 years
i,!^96,ooo years
864,000 years
432^,000 years

4,3:^0,000 years

71

306^7:^0,000 years
14

4,294,080,000 years

25,920,000 years

4,320,000,000 years,
which is one short day of Brahman.

In this way the tradition about the Bathers and the ^ishis
and the Manus and Pray^patis goes on growing, different
conceptions being mixed up together, each family or school
adding their own legends, till in the Pur§.?^as the confusion
exceeds all bounds, and the original germs of sense are
smothered beneath a thick layer of mere nonsense.

NOTE L, p. 242.

ON iSfBlDDHAS.

In the Nirnaya-sindhu the &addhas are classified under
twelYe heads

1. Nitya-srMdha; perpetual, obligatory, daily ofierings to
ancestors, without the Vai^vadeva offerings ^ A man who is
unable to offer anything else may perform this ^raddha with
water,

2. Naimittika-^raddha ; occasional, as, for instance, the
ekoddish^a, i. e. the ^raddha intended for a person lately de-
ceased, and not yet incorporated with the Pitns. This, too, is
without the Vai^vadeva offering, and the number of Bri,hma^as
invited should be unequal.

3. Kamya-,jraddha ; voluntary, or rather, offered for a special
object.

4. Vnddhi-^rMdha ; offered on occasions of rejoicing or
prosperity^ such as the birth of a son, etc.

5. Sapkf&na-^raddha ; performed when the recently de-
parted is incorporated among the Pitris. For this ^raddha
four patras or vessels are required^ full of sesame and scented
water for argha, and the vessel of the recently deceased person
is poured into the vessels of the Pitns, with the two verses
® ye samanS.^.’ It is in one sense an ekoddish^a, and for the
rest to be performed like the nitya-^rMdha. It can be offered
for a woman also®.

6. Parvaj^a-^r^ddha ; performed on a parvan day, i. e. new
moon, the eighth day, the fourteenth day, and Ml moon.

7. Gosh^/^MrMdha ; performed in a gosh?JM (house , of
assembly), for the benefit of a number of learned men.

8. ^uddhi-^raddha ; performed for the expiation of some sin,

^ See Colebrooke, Life and Essays, voL ii, p. 196; Wilson, Yishwu-purawa,
P-314-

^ Vislwiu-nura?^a, p, .^26. ^ Vag^^avalkya I, 253^253.

ON ^seAbdhas.

375

and including the feeding of Brahma^as. It forms part of a
prl-ya^/^jitta, or expiatory rite.

9. Karm&hga-<srMdhajformingpart ofsomeotherceremonyj

such as the Sa??^sk§.ras or sacraments at birth, etc.

10. Daiva-^r^ddha; offered for the sake of the Devas.

ii» YMra- 5 rMdha; performed by a person going on a
journey, for his safe return.

PushiS-.si 4 ddha ; performed for the sake of health and
wealth j also called aupa/Jayika.

The four principal &addhas are the Parva^za, Ekoddish&,
Vnddhi, and /Sapm^ana sraddhas.

/Jr^dhas may be performed in one’s own house, or in some
secluded and pure place. There are besides certain localities
which are considered particularly favourable to the perform-
ance of the ancestral rites, and these naturally vary during
different periods of Indian history. In the Mahabh 4 rata the
following are mentioned as particularly sacred ; Kurukshetra,
Gay^, Gahga, Sarasvati, Prabh§,sa, Pushkara. In the Aditya-
purto Gayakshetra is described as five kronas, GayMras as
one kro^a, west of the great river as far as the mountain
GHdhre<?vara^ north of Brahmayfipa, as far as Dakshi^^a-
m§.nasa (?). Other localities are mentioned also as particularly
unfavourable for the performance of / 9 rMdhas, and a careful
study of these places^ both favourable and unfavourable to
the performance of /SrMdhas, would he very instructive as to
the geographical horizon of successive generations.

The number of &addhas to be performed each year by those
who can afford it varies considerably, but ninety-six seems to be
a generally received number. Mr. Bourguin, in his translation
of the Dharmasindhu (Journal of the Eoyal Asiatic Society of
Bombay, 1881, p. aa), enumerates them as follows: — ^Twelve
Am^ or new-moon rites ; four Yuga and fourteen Manu rites
(i. e, on the anniversary days of the beginnings of the fourteen
Manvantaras and the four Yugas) ; twelve Kranti, corre-
sponding to the twelve passages of the sun into the zodiacal
mansions ; twelve Dhriti, performed on the day of the month
the sun and the moon are on the same side of either solstice,
but of opposite direction ; twelve PMa, performed on the day
of the month the sun and the moon are on opposite sides of

376

NOTES AND ILLFSTEATIONS.

eitber solstice and their declination is the same; fifteen
Mahalaya, great funeral rites and sacrifices performed at the
end of the Hindu lunar year in the month of Bhadrapada
(which is the last month of the year of the era of Vikrama-
ditya, but not of Mivahana, showing that VikrapaMitya^s era
was once followed by all Hindus (?), as now even those who
follow /Salivahana’s era still perform those rites according to
VikramMitya’s calendar in the month of Bhadrapada) ; five
Ashifakas, performed on the eighth day of five months of the
year ; five Anvash^akas^ performed on the ninth day of five
months of the year ; and five Purvedyu/^, performed on the
seventh day of five months of the year.’ This is summed up in
the following verse :

It should be remarked, however, as Colebroobe pointed out,
that different authorities do not concur exactly in the number,
or in the particular days, when the Aaddhas should be
solemnized.

Note to page 328, I have received the following note from
Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio with reference to the Chinese transla--
tion of the Amara-kosha mentioned by Stanislas Julien. It
shows how careful we ought to be in using the statements
even of the very best Chinese scholars.

‘I venture to say a few words on this, statement of M.
Stanislas Julien. According to the Khai-yuen-lu (compiled
A. n. 730), fase. 7, fol. 6 a, the titles of the Chinese translation
in question are— ^ ^ ^ ^

‘i. ^ ^ FIn-wai-kwo-yu, lit. “translation-

foreign (^ outside ’)-country-word.”

jSn-sho-lun-yin-yuen-sh’, lit.
“ Kosha-^astra-hetu-pratyaya-vastu . ”

< 3, ^ ^ Tsa-sh’, lit. “ Sa^yukta-vastu.”

* The two latter titles are given in a note under the first title.

OlSr ;S(EADBHAS,

37 ?

The work is said to have ■ keen in seven fasciculi^ and already
missing in a. d, 730, when the Khai-yuen 4 n was compiled.

^ From the second title, I can judge that the work might
have teen one which ti’eated or explained the subject of the
six kinds of cause (Hetu) and the four kinds of co-operating
cause (pratyaya) — these being the subjects fully discussed
in the second chapter of the Abhidharmakosha-^astra, by
Vasubandhu. But there is no trace in the three different
titles of the Amara-koshsi,

‘ The name of the translator may be Kulanatha, instead of
Gu?2arata ; because this name is translated ^ Tshin-i,
lit. “ intimate-relying,” though it is transliterated ^’ii-na-Io-
tho (Aii-lo-n&.-tho ?). See my Catalogue, col* 4!:^3 (Appen-
dix n)j No. 104.

Kulan§,tha (Gu;^arata) or Param&rtha first worked at trans-
lations, A.B. 548-557, under the LM dynasty, a.I). 502-557;
then A, n. 557-569, under the Mbix dynasty, a.b. 557-589.
He did not, however, work during the reign of the Emperor
Wou-ti, of the Tcheou (Aeu) dynasty, who reigned a, n.
561-577 (not 566, when the name of the year was changed
into a new one, which happened once more in 57 ^)* Anyhow
it is strange that Julien mentions this Emperor, who be-
longed only to a secondary dynasty, contemporaneous with
the KisbJiy and was one of four famous sceptical Chinese rulers
with regard to Buddhism.

‘B. N.’

INDEX.

ABBA Seen river, the, p. i^j^note.
Abhidharma-^j^ana-prasth^na-aMra,

309-

Abbidharmakosba-a^stra, 303 note,
304> 309? 377-
Abblriki dialect, 295,

Abraiaman, 56.

Abu Fazl, 57.

Active side of bnman nature in Eu-
rope, 99.

Adam and Eve, 29.

Adhvaryava, tbe, 354 %ote,

Ac^/^yarl^a, 331.

Adi Brabma Sam^j, 143 note*

Adi*tka, court of, 339 note*

Aditi, meaning of, 196.

— connected with tbe Dawn, 197.
Aditya, 138-195.

Adityas, tbe, 185, 196, 2]^, 223, 332,
Adrogba, not deceiving, 6^*
Adrogba-vSij, 65.

Aeneas, 29.

Aerial gods, 148.

Aescbylos, 205.

Afghan, 37.

Afghans or Pusbtus, 1 70.
Afghanistan, 139.

Agrita, 305.

A^'ita Kesakambala, 336.

Agni, 144. i45> 148. 155. l?6, 226,
230. 345. 252.

— presence of, 177.

Agni=ignis, 23, 183.

Agnibotra sacrifice, 127,

Abin Bosh Tope, 293.

Abura Mazda, 224 note,

KtXovpos, 262, 266.

Aindra grammar, the, 351.

Air, gods of tbe, 244.

Aitareya Brabmam, on heaven and
earth, 156.

Akbar, 57.

’A/f €crtV7;s => Asikni, 165,173,

Akbyanas, 88.

Aksbap^da, 360,

Aksbayamati, 303 305,

A^jyntapreksba, 360 note.

Alankara, 332. See Dbarmaklrti.
Albiruni, 28a note, 283, 294, 320,
337 - '

Alexander, 19.

— Indian river names, at the time

of, 169.

7— army of, turned back on tbe Vipas,

■ 17a.

— Indian rivers known to, 172, 173.

— eifects of bis conquest of India,

■274.

Ali Miisjid Tope, 394.

Allahabad, 77 *

All-Sacrifice, tbe, 67.

Alphabet, 18, 203.

— - whence derived, 18.

— Ionian and Phoenician, 203.

— two used in Asoka’s inscriptions,

206.

Ara^t, twelve, 375. ^

Amara, or Amarasimba, 327.
Amaradeva, 327,

Amara-kosba, tbe, 334, 342, 376,
377 *

— Chinese translation of tbe, 328, $f6.
Amarn, 339.

Amitabba worship, 87.
Amrita-bbuvana, tbe, 316.

Amsa, 196.

Ananta, 300.

Anaxagoras, I 57 » 205,

Anaximander, 205.

Anaximenes, 205.

Ancestor worship, 321 .

— Herbert Spencer on, 221.
Ancestors, spirits, 220, 233.

Ancient myths, 152.^

Ancient Sanskrit literature, 88, 89,

95 ^ 97 *

A%ana, 313, 310.

Angiras, 225, 373.

380

INDEX.

A.niiilpum dynasty, 284.

Animal enmities, 264.

Animism, 109,

Annals of the After Han Dynasty, 275.
Annals of tlie Sui dynasty, 275.
Annual Deluge, 368.

Annta, 64.

Ansik or Parthia, 275.

Antiochus the Great, 259.

Antipodes, the, 198.

Anumana, 346.

Anush^ubh, wife of Mitra, 145 note.
Anuyogadvara-sastra, 362.

— systems of philosophy in the, 363.
Anvaharya jSraddha, 240,
Anvash^akas, five, 376.

Apastamba, 92 note, 237,

Apes, 10.

Aphrodisius, 320 note.

Aphrodite, 10.

Apollo, 108, 201, 217.

Ara, suffix, 296, 296 «ofe.

Arab Lunar Stations, 130.

Arabia, 32, 33.

Arawya-m^rylira, wild cat, 264.
Ara?2yaka, 209.

Aratus, 322.

Araxes, 166.

Archaeology in India, 8.

Archaeological Survey of India, 8.
Arpikiya, 165 note, 166, 166 note, 172
note.

Arkias, Lith.=oralo, Old Slav., 369.
Arrian, pupil of Epictetus, 55.

— - Indian rivers known to, 17 1, 17a.
Art poetry of India, 353.

Artabaniis, 274.

Artaxerxes Mnemon, 54.

Artemis, 108.

Aru 92 ,a Aupavesi, 72.

Aryabhata the elder, the astronomer,

394^ 3181 319*

— born at Pdialiputra, 319.

— Ms works, 319,

— mentions the Eodiac, 322.
Aryabhata the younger, 319 note.
Aryabhaiiya Sfitra, 319.

— divisions of the, 319.

Aryadeva, disciple of Aifcirya HS.gffi'-
^ 9una, 304.

Aryadeva, a Brahman pupil of Vasu-
bandhu, 305.

Aryaman, 196.

Arya-mangu, 337.

Ary^ metre, its chronological charac-
ter, 320.

Aryan family, 23,

— seven branches of the, 23.

— separation, 23.

Aryan man, the, 95.

— race, ancestors of the, 117.

— religion, 141.

Aryans of India, 12, 15.

Aryasfira, 211 mfe^ 355.

Ary^varta, 282.

As, the root, 26.

— to breathe, 26.

Asanga, 282, 302, 303, 305, 306, 309,
312-

— his Yoga 7 i:iryabhfimi-sSstra, 303.

— his pupils, 305.

AshadAa, full moon of, 128 note.
AshddAa >8udi. 286.

Ashiadhdtu, 344.

AsMakas, five, 376.

Asikni, Akesines, 165, 165 note, 172,
Asmi, I am, 25, 26,

Asoka,87, 206, 216, 297.

— his edicts in local dialects, 77*

— his inscriptions, 292.

— his date, 306.

Assyrian treasures at Mykenae, 259.
Astronomers, early Indian, 318.
Astronomy, ancient, in India, 129,

130, 133-

— in China, 132.

Asu, as, ds, dris, a 6.

Aeuras, 219.

Asuri, 361.

Asvagosha, 312.

Asvins, the, 145, X97.

Atharva-veda, 66, 265.

Atharvans, 225.

Athene, 217.

'^AdKov and S.$Xa, 164 note.

"A 0 ko<p 6 po$ = vagsbmhhsi,va,, i 6 ^note.
Atithi, or guest, 49,

Atman, the Self, 245-6, 251, 252,
Atmanepada, 342.

Atri, 372.

Audgatra, 354 note.

Aufirecht, Professor, 341.

Augustus, 353. ^

Aulfikya or Kdnada system, 362 note.
Aupanishadas, 360, 361.
AupapStika-Sdtra, 362 note.

AvaiM, the shades, 15 1.

Avat^ra of the Fish, 133.

— ' Tortoise, 133,

— Boar, 133.

Avatdraa of Vishwu, three, 133, 138.
Avyayavritti, 334 note.

Ayin Akbari, the, 57.

Ayodhy£, 170.

Azor, the hawk, 265.

BABEL, tower of, 29.
Babrius, 263.

Babylon, 15, 18.

INDEX.

381

#

Babylonian Bull, 50.

— influences on Yedic poems, 125.

— on Vedic astronomy, 126.

— Zodiac, 138, 139.

Bactria, 139, 259, 274.

Bactrian conquests in India, 298.
Badami, inscription of, 297,
Badarayajza’s list of tbe Zodiacal signs,

324.

founder of tbeUttara-mlmawaa; 3 59,
Baga, Bbaga, and Bogfl, 182.
Baladitya, 3 1 7, 3 3 2 .

Balance, sign of the, 323.

— Letronne on the, 322.

Balasastrin, 340, 341.

Balav§,ya, 266.

Ballabhi, 77. See Yalabhi.
Ballantyne, 4.

Ba?ia, 307, 308, 315/ 328, 330 , 331,
331 332, 334, 338, 358/

360, 366.

— Ms account of ^Sillditya, 287.

— author of the Harsha^arita, 329.

— not Bhavaka, 329 note*

— works quoted by, 331.

Bappapada, see Sri Bappapada.
Barhaspatya, 363.

Barzdi, 93, 356.

Bastian, on the Polynesian Myths,
150 note*

Bauddha system, 362, 362 note.
Bauddhasangati or sangiti, 332.
Baudhayana, 92 note.

— - mention of some Zodiacal signs,
333.

Baudhayana Sfltras, 354, 354 note.
Bazodeo=Yasudeva, 297.

Beal’s Catalogue of the Buddhist
Tripiiaka, 342.

Bedd Gelert, Chinese version of, the
date of, 264.

Bedia-ad“din, on the date of Becker-
madui = Yikramaditya, 317.

Bedi ezr Zenan, his account of the
Indians, 371.

Bedouins, 130. ^

Behar, people of, 37.

Behat, 166, 173.

Beng^, people of, 37.

•— villages in, 4 7 note.

— BchoolR, 62 note.

Bengalese, 37*

Bengali, 82, 141.

Berg and burg, traced by Grimm to
Par^^anya, 370.

Beryl, 266,

■—mines of, 266.

Beyond, the, 105, 201, 219, 343.

— a, 175.

— how named, 163.

Bhadra, 339,

Bhadrabahu’s Kalpasfltra, 336.
Bhadrapada, the month, 376.

Bhaga, 196.

— Baga, Bogh, 182.

Bhagadatta, king, 131 note.
Bhagavadgita, the, 90, 252.

Ehagavat, Supreme Lord, 252.
Bhaktamarastotra, Gain commentary

on, 330 note.

Bhawc^i, 288.

Bhao Baji, 306, 313 note, 336.

— on inscription with Kalidasa’s

name, 91 note.

— on the Samvat era, 284.

— — ^aka era, 294.

— Max Mfiller’s discussion with, 301

note.

— on the true date of Kalidasa, 312,

— on the identification of Matngupta

and Kalidasa, 3 1 3, 315 note,
Bharata, 70, 332.

~ Mallika, 350.

Bharavi, 91, 93, 301, 328.
Bhartribha^^a, or Bartn'mewto, 314
note.

Bhartnhari, 310, 347, 348, 349, 350,

351-

— sentences of, 90.

— the brother of Yikramaditya, 349,

351.

— various names for, 350.
Bhartr^me»^^a, or Bhartribhai^a, or

Bhartnhari, 328.

Bhasa, a dramatist, 331.

Bhashya, 353.

Bhaskara A^arya, 320.
Bhaskara-bha^jJa = Yidyapati, 320 note.
Bhaskara Misra’s commentary on the
Black Ya^-ur-veda, 354 note.
Bhaskaravarman, king of Kamarflpa,
288.

Bha^a, 335.

Bhai^ara-Hari/candra, 331.

Bhai^i, same as Bhartfih|iri, 350.
Bha^iikavya, 350.

BhaiMyidtkshita, 340, 341, 342.
BhaWotpala, 320.

Bhavabbfiti, 314, 328, 332, 334, 339.
Bhavasvamin, 354, 354 note,
Bhavaviveka, 311, 312.

Bhavnagar, 250,

Bhayaharastavana, 338.

Bhils, 49.

Bhlshma, death of, 70.

Bhogra, the older, or Maditya Pratil-
pasila, 289 note, 330, 334 note.
Bhoya, king of Bhara, 284, 321 note,
331 note.

Bhograrapa, 334 note.

Bhoomka, 269.

Bhngu-samhita, 365, 366,

382

. INDEX.

Bhngus, 176, 225.

BMta dialect, 358.

BMta sacrifice, 229.

Bias, or Byah, 172.

Bibasis, 1 72 mte,

Bible, 1 19.

•— Sanskrit words in the, 10.

— teaches us little of the whole

Jewish race, 119.

Bibliographical survey of India, 83.
Bi-metallic currency, 19.

Biot, 130.

Bipasis, 172

Black Yagrur-veda, 354 note.

Boar and the Deluge, 134.

Bodhi-tree destroyed, 287 note.
Bodhihndayotp^da-sastra, 309 note.
BodhiHttotpdda, 308, 309.^

Bodhiru/d, 299, 308.

Bodhisattvas, studies of the, 362,
363 note.

Boehtlingk, Professor, 339.

Bogh, Bhaga, and Baga, 182.

Bolor or Balur-t%h, 267, 267 note.
Books read by ancient nations, 12 1.
Bopp, 28.

— his Comparative Grammar, 28.
Botany in India, 8.

Bradke, Mdnava Gnhya Shtra, 366.
Brahma sacrifice, 229.

Brahma Samdj of India, 143 note, 249.
Brahmagupta, the mathematician, 295,
320, 337-

Brahman, 66,360 wofe, 372.

— a short day of, 373.

Br^hmawa, a, or twice-born man, 142/
• — period, 134, 207, 365,

— the, 209.

Br^hmaJias, the, 66, 90, 221, 227, 363,
364.

— on truth, 66.

— or twice-bom, high caste, 214, 236,

373^374-

Brahmanism, 13.

Brahmans, I-tsing’s account of the, 212.
Brahma Sphufa-siddhanta, 320.
BHhaspati, 93 note, 360.

Bnhatkatha, the, 331, 332, 350, 351,
357. 35S.

Bnhatkatha-ma%arl, 358.
Bi’ihat-samhita, the, 320.

British India, number of villages in,
47 note,

Buchanan, 4.

Buddha, 77.

— his pupils use dialects not Sanskrit,

78.

Buddha*s birth, 306 note.

— Nirvam, 306 note.

Buddha-Gaya, temple at, 327.
Buddhaghosha, 336.

Buddhap^lita, 304.
Buddhasam-giti-siitra, 332 note.
BuddhasS-sana, 362.

Buddha Virapas, 299.

Buddhism, 13, 89.

— chief source of our fables, 9, 355,

— rise of, 87, 215.

— adopted by Asoka, 87.

— Mahayana form of, 87.

— literature of, 89.

— Conference on, 278.

— in Ceylon, 278.

— and Christianity, coincidences be-

tween, 279.

Buddhist collection of Cataka-stories,
365-

— Birth Stories, Bhys Davids*, 1 1 note.

— pilgrims, 55.

— TripiiJaka, 88.

— Chinese translation of, 338.

— literature, 94.

— inscriptions of Asoka, 206.

— their language, 216.

— prophecies, 299.

— assembly in Vihara in Kasmlra,

304.

— writings in Ka«mtra, 304.

— teaching, influence of, on the Mi-

mamsa and Kyaya, 308 note.

— literature, revival of, 309.
Buddhistic religion, 89.

Biihler, Professor, on the Yikrama
era, 285.

— on Somadeva, 357*

Bullion brought into India in Pliny’s
time, 8 note,

Bundahash, 132.

Bunyiu Nanjio, on the Chinese trans-
lations of the Amara-kosha, 376.
Burnell, Dr.^ 354, 354 note, 357.

— on dates in Taranatha’s History,

308 note.

Bumouf, 94, 267.

Burrindu, 1 73
Bushmen, 123.

C, see K.

Cabulj 77.

Cabul river, 166, 173,

— tributaries of the Indus, above the,

i>]f$note.

Caesar, on the Druid songs, 215.
OsBsarius first mentions the cat, 261
Calcutta, higher natives in, 41.
Cambopa, inscriptions of, 288 note.
Canaan, 119,

Capital sentences, number of, in Eng-
land and Bengal, 44, 44 note.
Cappeller, Dr., on the date of Vtoana,

339»340-
Carey, 4.

INDEX.

383

Carian coins, 8.

Carlyle, i6.

Caste, system of, 95 note.

— in the Laws of Mann, 95 note.

— in the Big-veda, 95 wo^e.

Cat, not known to ancient Aryans, 24.

— names for, 24.

— came from Egypt to Greece and

Italy, 24, 261,

— domestic, 261.

— first mentioned by Csesarius, 261.

— no bones of, at Pompeii, 262,

— A. S., 263 note.

— cata, Prov., 263 note.

— Gael., 263

— Irish, 263 note.

— and mouse, 263.

— ■ when known in India, 264.

— names for, in Sanskrit, 264.

Cath, Vi^dsh, 263 woie.

Cati, catti, 261.

Cats, pictures of, at Pompeii, 262.
Cats and dogs, 264.

Oatta in Martialis, 261 note.

Catus, 24, 262,

Celts, 15.

ChMukya inscriptions, 285.

— dynasty, 317. Earlier form, Ch^-

lukya.

Chang Kien, 274.

Charon of Lampsakos, 204 note.

Chat, chatte, French, 263 note.

Chazza, 0 . H. G., 263 note.

China, a modern name, 131 note,
Chinab or Asiknl, 173.

Chinese chronicles, 86.

. — Lunar Stations, 1 30.

— three aspects of religion in, 244.

— version of the tale of Bedd Geiert,

264.

— translation of the ^ata-sastra,

3d9W0ifi.

, — embassy to jEandr0,pida of Kas-
333.

to LalitMitya, 333,

— pilgrims in India, SiijS.

— translation of the Amara-kosha,

376-

Chourasees, circles of villages, 47.
Christian religion, true knowledge of,
founded on a study of the Jewish
race, 17.

— influence in the Bhagavadglta

Upanishads, 355.

Chronology in India, 292,
Circumnavigations, 203.

Gitto, Arm., 263 mte.

Civil Servants in old times, 39.

Code of J ustinian, 93.

Coins of India, 8.

— of Gondophares and Kanishka, 293.

Coins of Kadphises and Huvishka, 293.

— Boman, in India, 293.

Colebrooke, Thomas, 4.

— on Hindu religious ceremonies, 227.

— on ^'raddha, 239, 239 note.

Colenso, 64.

Commercial honour in India, 63.
Comte, 123.

Confucius, 212, 306 note.

— his studies, 212.

Conquerors of India, 12, 38, 54.
Controversy, 114.

Council of Kasmlra, 296.

Counsellors, 95 note.

Cowell, Professor, his preface to the
Kusumiw^ali, 308, 308 note.
Cramming, efl'ect of, 2.

Cratylus, 9 note, 10.

Crawfurd, 4.

Croesus, 19.

Ounaxa, battle of, 54.

Cuneiform inscriptions, 30,
Cunningham, General, 259.

— Ancient Geography of India, 174

note.

— on the Sam vat era, 284.

Cuvier, on cat mummies, 262.
Cylinders of Babylon, 1 1 8 note.

Adai = Dacians, 274 note.

Dacians, 274 note.

Dacoits, 61.

Dada II, date of, 285.

Dainos, 369.

Daisies, Gk., 293 note.

Daityas, 372.

Daiva-«raddha, 375.

Daksha, 196.

Dakshi, father of P^nini, 35 x.
Damodaragupta, 335, 339.

Danavas, Danes, 274 note, 372.
Dandin, 358.

— author of the Kavytidaxsa, 314/

. 332. , ■ *:

— his Da*akumara/:arita, 329 note^

332. ■

Daradas, 131 mte.

Adpa^a, capital of Yueh-chi, 2 *j$noie.
Darius, 19, 259.

— Hystaspes, I'^o.

Darsanas, the Six, 360, 363.

Darwin, 64.

• — Origin of Species, 1 20.

Dasagramls of Panini, 276.

Dasaratha, king of Ayodliya, 67, 68,
Dasyus or non-Aryan races, 13 1 note.
Davis, 4.

Dawn, the, 153, 177, 198.

— as Aditi, 197.

Dayananda’s Introduction to the Big-
veda, 85.

384

INDEX.

Dekkaij, 122.

Delhi, 170.

Deluge, the, 133, 137.

— - in Hindu literature, 134, 139.
Departed spirits, 319.

Departed, regulations in honour of
the, 327, 230.

Deva, 309, 309 notej 312.

— meaning of, 159.

— dens, 318.

— sacrifice, 229.

Devapatnls, wives of the gods, 145 noie.
Devipi’s prayer for rain, 185.
Devarddlfigani Kshamasramawa, 336.
Devas, the, idS, 162, 199, 217-219,
222, 251, 352, 371, 372, 375*
offsprings of Heaven and Earth,

' 159 * :

Devat^s, 147.

Developement of human character in
India and Europe, 96 e^ sg., 117*
Dhanvantari, the physician, 329, 329
note,

Dharasena, see /Sridharasena.

Dharma on Samayai 5 ;firika Sfltras, 12.
Dharmaklrti, pupil of Arya Asanga,
305, 308, 308 note, 332.
Dharmapala, 308 note, 309, 310, 310
note, 346, 348, 349, 361,
Dharmaraksha, 332 rioie.

Dharmas, the, 9, 398.

Dharma“Si,stras, or Law-books, 92 note,
364. 365, 366.

Dharmasastrins, 366.

Dharmasindhu, translated by M. Bour-
guin, 375.

Dhanna-sfitras, 92 note, 365.
Dharmatrata, 304.

Dharmayasas, 332 note,

Dhatri, 162, 246.

Dh^tu, or Dhatupa^^a, 344.
DhatutarangiTil, 334 note, 339.
Dhavaka, 329 note, 331 note.

Dhena, wife of Brihaspati, 145 note.
Dhriti sraddhas, twelve, 375.
Dhruvabhaia of Valabhl, 336 note.
Dhruvapatu, 318 note.

Dhruvasena of Yalabhi, 318
Dhruvasena, king of Anandapura, 336,
%^ 6 note.

Dialects of India at the time of Asoka,

77.

Dialogues of Plato, j 21,

Dignaga, pupil of Arya Asanga, 305.

— adversary of Kalidasa, 307.

— same as the writer on Hyfiya, 307,

308.

— his date, 308.

Dlkshfi, wife of Soma, 145 note,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 157.
Dionysos and Dyunisya, 183.

Diphthera, 204.

Directorium, 265.

Divakarabha^^a, 322.

Divi manes, 232.

Dobrowsky, derivations from per%, to
strike, 192.

Domitian, coins of, 293.

Donkey in the lion’s skin, 9, 9 note,
10,

— in the tiger’s skin^ 10 note.
Dravidian, 37,

Dravidians of India, 12.

Droghavafc, 65,

Drub, dhru! 5 , dhruk, 289.

Druids, their memory, 215.

Dubois, 43.

Dugald Stewart, 28.

Durlabhaka Pratapaditya, 333.
Durlabhavadhana, 333.

Dushyanta, king, 71.

Dvapara-Yuga, 373.

Dyaus, 146 note, i£S, 162, 180, 188,

194*

Dyaus and SJeus, 182.

Dyaus, the sky, 371.

Dyausb-pita, 371.

Dyava-pntbM, 195.

Dyavipnthivyau, 158.

Dyu, sky, 158.

Dyunisya and Dionysos, 183.

£iab1n1, 138.

Barth, gods of the, 145, 244,

East, we all come from the, 31-32.
Ecliptic, Indian, 133.

— borrowed by the Arabs, 133.
Education of the Human Race, 89.

— in India, I-tsing’s account of, 21 1 ,

"212.

Egypt. 15.18. 20,119, 274,

— home of the domestic cat, 261.
Egyptian Sphinx, 30.
Ekoddishta-sraddJba, 375,

Elephanta, 4.

Eleven signs only for the Zodiac, 322.
Elliot, 4.

Ellis, 4.

Elphinstone, Mountstuart, 59.

— - on the difficulty of really knowing
natives, 59.

— on the Hindus, 61.

English Official and Native Law
Officer, 51-53.

Eos, 197.

Eos and Ushas, 182.

Epics, the great, 354.

Epistles of Horace, 121,

Brinnys and Sara?iyu, 183. \

Estates of villages in India, 268,
Esthonian prayer, 193.

Ethnology in India, 8.

385

INDEX.

Eudoxus,. '321.

Euripides, on tlie marriage of heaven
and earth, 157.

Euthydemus of Bactria, 259.

Evagrius scholasticus, 261.
Examinations, work produced at, 3.

EABLES^ migration of, 9.

Ea-hian, 264, 327, 338.

Ea-hu, 333 mte,

Eairguneis in Gothic, 370.

Eafrgimi, Gothic, 369.

Falcon, 265.

Fathers, the, hymns to, in the Big- ,
veda, 221, 223, 224, 225.

■ — two. classes of, 223.

—- hymn to, 225.

Eales, 24.

Eelis domesticus, 262, 263.

Eergunna, Erzgebirge, 370.

— or Fergunnia—Hercynia, 370.

— Grimm on, 370.

Eergusson on the /Saka and other eras,
282, 283, 291.

Ferret, 262.

Finite, the, impossible without the In-
finite, 105.

Eidrgyn, feminine deity, genitive Eibr-
gynior, 370.

Eibrgynn, masculine deity, genitive
Eiorgyns, 370.

— ==: Par(/anya, 370.

Eire, names for, in Aryan languages,
23, 24.

— a terrestrial deity, 1 76.

— its value, 177.

— why worshipped, 1 7 7 j ^ 7 ^*

Five nations, the, 95 note.

Five sacrifices, 229.

Focus, 24.

Folk-lore, Indian, 355.

Forchhammer, on the treasures found
at Mykenae, 259.

Fravashis in Persia, 221, 224 note,
Frederick the Great, 16.

French, Bishop of Lajtore, 280.

Freya’s cats, 263.

Friar Jordanus, 56.

Frigg, wife of Odin, 370.

Full and New-moon sacrifices, 1 37.
Funeral ceremonies, 233, 234.

Futo = Buddha, 276.

g and k, rgx note.

Giid^mh and pandaraZi, 296 note.
6/agati, wife of Aditya, 145 note.
Gairnini, 359.

Gaiminiya or Mlmams^ system, 362,
363 note.

Gaina literature, 335.

— canon, 336.

c

Gaina authorities, 337.

— system, 362, 362 note.

Gaxnas, sacred writings of, 79.

— literature of the, 262.

— or Bauddhas, 342.

Gainism, 284.

Galandhara, Kanishka king of, 304,
FaA^, 262, 263.

Galileo, 64, 114.

Gambhirapaksha, patron of Asahga,
282 note, 306 note.

Gamitra, Jacobi on the word, 326.
Ganga, Ganges, 165, 170.

Ganges, 122, 140, 165, 168, 170, 171,

— water, oaths on the, 51, 53.

— and Jumna, sources of, 77.

Garga, 297 note.

Gargi, 297 note, 325.

Gargi sawhita, 297, 297 note.

Garib, the Funner, 169 note.
Garpugree, 269;

Garutmat, 245.

Gataka, 1 3 note.

— Singhalese translation of, il note.

— stones, 355.

Gatakamfila, the, 211, 21 1 note, 346.
Gatavedas, 65, 226.

Gatha dialects, 88.

Gathakosha, 331.

Gatha-sangraha, prophecies in, 299.
Gathas, 88.

Gato, gata, Span., 26$ note.

Gatto, gatta, Ital., 263 note.

Gats and Yueh-chi, 86.

— Lassen on, 86 note.

Gaudapada, 360 note.

— commentary of, 360 note.
Gaudapada and Govinda, 354.
Gaudhara, firom godha, 296.

Gautama, 92 note.

— allows a lie, 70.

Gautamtya, 362 note.

Gayabhate, date of, 285, 286.
Gayaclitya, 340, 341, 345, 346.
Gayamangala, 350.

Gayanttpiira, 331 note.

Gayapida, 334, 339, 340-
Gayasena of Surtisldra, 310.

Gayatrl, wife of Vasu, 145 note.

— ^ the, 231.

Gayendra, 313, 316, 317.
Gayendra-viliara, the, visited by
Hiouen-tiisang, 316.

Geminus, 322.

Gems, 262.

Genesis, Maori, 154, 155,

Geology in India, 8.

Germany, study of Sanskrit in, 4*
Getae, the, 86,

Ghmhsb, 135,

Ghatekarpara, 329.

C

386

IKDBX.

Gill, Rev. W., Mytts and Songs of
the South Pacific, 150, 214.

Oim, 346.

>— his hymns, 303.

— - Ny4yadv&,rataraka, 307.

— Bodhisattva, 361, 362.
Ginendrabnddhi, 342.

Girnar, 251 note,

(rishrau. 320.

{j^^ana^andra, 312, 361.

Gobhiliya Grihya Sfitras, 366.

Gods in the Yeda, number of, 145.

— meaning of, 159.

Gods and goddesses, 147.

Goethe’s West-ostlicher Divan, 4.
Gokulaji, native statesman, 250.

— his study of the Yedanta, 250 note.
Gold treasure found in Bengal, 9.
Goldstiicker, Prof., on the date of

Yamana, 340.

Gomat, 166, 173 note, 174 note.
Gomatl, 166, 173 note, 174 note.
Gonardiya dynasty, 333.

Gondophares, coins of, 293, 293 note.

— St. Thomas’s visit to, 293.

Gonds, the, 49.

GoshtM-sraddha, 374*

Gotama, 360.

Gothic and Anglo-Saxon, family like-
ness between, 22.

— how explained, 22.

Goths or Gothi, 86.

Govinda, 360 note.

Govinda and GaudJap^da, 354.
Grahavarman, 288,

— killed by the king of Malava, 288.
Grammar, I-tsing on, 343.

Grassman, translation of Sanskrit

words, 164
Greek coins, 8.

— our philosophy is, 20.

-r- alphabet, age of, 202.

— letters in Kanishka’s inscriptions,

292,

— influence in India, 321.

— Zodiac, 321.

— astronomy in India, 326.

— influence on the Indian Epics,

355*

— Zodiacal signs known to Yn’ddha

Manu, 366.

Greek and Latin, study of, congenial
to us, 3.

— similarity between, 22.

— how explained, 22.

Greeks and Romans, 15, 17, l8.
Greeks in India, 298. ,

Gregorian calendar, 2%^ note.

Gregory of Nazianzus, 261.

Grihya, or domestic ceremony, 232.
Gnhya Sfltra, 227. ;

Grimm, identification of Par^anya
and Perftn, 192.

— on the Dacians, 274.

Growth of ancient religions seldom
known to us, 107.

Grunau, on Old Prussian gods, 192.
Guide-books, Greek, 204.

Gujarat, Buhler’s literary researches

in, 35^*

Gu?^abhadra, 299.

Guwadeva, 357.

Guwad/iya, author of the Bnhatkatha,
33'. 332. 357. 358-
— ■ of Pratishfj^aua, 357.

Gm2amati, pupil of Yasubandhii, 305,
305 note, 309, 310 note, 362.
Guwaprabha of Parvata, pupil of Ya-
subandhu, 305, 309.

GuT^arata of TJp^ayinl, 328.

Guwdfa, 167 note,

Gupta, king of Gaud^a, 2 88.

— era, 294.

— dialect, 318 note.

Guptas, the, 297.

Guru, 214.

Gushan ~ Kouei-shuang, 276,
Gymnosophists, Indian, 102,
(ryotirvidabharana, 281 note.

HADES, 108.

Haeckel, 8.

Hala or Satavahana, 331 note.
Half-yearly sacrifices, 127,

Hall, Dr. F., his discovery of the Har-
sliaA:arita, 287.

Han-ki, 276.

Hanumat, 353 note.

Han Yd, 276.

Haradatta, 341.

Haridikshita, 342.

Harihara, 330.

Hariprabodha, the, 339.
Haris^andrai;andrika, 80.

Harita, 93 note.

Harivamsa, 332.

Harsha of Uooayini or Yikram^ditya,
282, 282 note,

— era, 282.

Harsha, or Harsha vardhana ^iladitya,
288, 288 note, 330 note, ^$1.
Harsha, king of Kasmlra, 356.

Harsha, the later, son of Hira, 2S7
note, ^$0 note.

— his writings, ^^onote, 331 note.
Harsha/carita, by Ba^ia, 316 note, 329,

334. 358. 360. 366.

Haryaksha, 352. ,

Haupt, 28.

Hautra, the, 354 note.
Hayagrlvavadha, the, 314 note, 328.
Heaven and Earth, 149, 162,

INDEX.

387

Heaven and Earth, Maori legend of,
154, 155.

— T edic legends of, 1 5 5 , 1 5 6.

- — Greek and Koman legends of, 156,

157.

—• epithets for, in Veda, 158.

— Universal Father and Mother, 1 59.

— were they gods ? 159, 160.

Heber, on the Hindus, 60.

Hebrew religion, foreign influences in,

124.

Hehn, on the meaning of talj^a, 261.
Hekatseos, 204 note.

Helara^a, 334 note.

Helios, 197.

— and Shrya, 182.

Hellanikos of Mitylene, 204 note,
Henotheism, 147.

Henotheistic phase of religion, 163.
Hephsestos, 108.

Hercules, 9 note, 153.

Hermann, Gottfried, 28.

Hermes and Saramtya, 183.
Herodotus, 204.

— on the cat, 262 note.

Hesychius, 173,

Hetuvidya, logical science, 346, 363.
Hieratic texts, 20.

Hieroglyphic texts, 20.

Highest Heaven gods of, 194.
Himatala, the king of, ^>^6 note.
Himmaleh mountains, 45, 84.
Hlnayana, 310.

Hindhu, 170.

Hindu character, testimony of strang-
ers to the, 54-61,

— Law of Inheritance, 221 note.
Hindus, 34.

— ■ truthfulness of, 34.

— different races all classed by us as

one, 37.

— - Professor Wilson on the, 4a.

— Mill on the, 4 2 -43 .

— Htigiousness of the, 43.

— Sir Thomas Munro on the, 43.

■— Colonel Sleeman their truthful-
ness, 50.

— “ deserve our interest, 116.
Hindustani, 37, 1 ^, 82.
Hiouen-thsang, 55, 308, 310, 31 1, 329,
338, 344 » 348, 349 *

— travels in India, 286,

. — his dream about King/Siladitya, 286,
«— toleration in India at the time of,
289.

—"his mention of Vasubandhu, 302,
302 note.

— becomes a pupil of Vasubandhu,

305-

— list of his teachers, 311, 31 1 mte.

— returned to China, 317.

Hiouen-tlisang, his translation of the
V aiseshika -nik&ya-dasapadartha-
aastra, 361.

— studied Nyaya, 361.

— studied the Yoga system, 362.
Hipparchus, 18, 323.

Hiraw-ya, 313.

Hira?2yagarhha, 144, 162.

Historian, work of the true, 16.
History, study of, almost impossible,

16.

— object of knowing, 16, 17.

— in its true sense, 26, 27.

— of India, Elphinstone’s, 59.
Hitopadesa, 5, 9 note, 355, 356.

— fables of the, 90.

Hiung-nu, the, 274, 275.

Holtzmann, on the era of Vikrama-

ditya, 283 note.

Homer, 29, 254.

Homeric hymns, 119, 121.

— Heaven and Earth in the, 1 56, 15 7,
Horace, Epistles of, 121.

Horasastra, by Varahamihira, 320,
• 326.

Hottentot river names, 169 note.
Houghton, 4.

Hu-fa — Dbarmapala, 310 note.

— his works, 310

Human mind, India all important for
the study of the, 14-1 5,

Human character, development of, in
India and Europe, 96 et sq., 117.
Humboldt, Alexander von, on Kali-
dasa, 90.

Huvishka, coins of, 293,

— date of, 294.

— — Ooerki, 297.

Hwa, the Emperor, 277.

HwuiSeng and Sung Yun, 338.
Hyarotis of Strabo, T72.

Hydaspes, 165, 165 mte, 173.
Hydraotes, 165 note,

— of Arrian, 172.

Hymn to the Fathers, 225.

Hypanis, 172 note.

Hypasis of Pliny, 172.

Hyphasis, 172.

ICHNEUMONS and serpents, 264.
Ida, 136,

Idrisi’s geography, 56.

Ignis, 176. ^

Ignis and Agni, 182.

Ijjar, April-May, 138.

‘'Ifcrts, 202, 263.

India, 32, 33, 34.

— its natural wealth, 6.

— study of the problems of life in, 6.

— of the villages, 7.
of the towns, 7.

G C 2

INDEX.

388

India, Ml of problems, 7*

— geology of, 8.

— botany of, 8.

^ zoology of, 8,

— ethnology of, 8..
archasology of, 8.

— coins of, 8.

— mythology of, 9.

— fables of, 9.

— and Solomon, 10.

— inhabitants of, 12.

■ — conquerors of, 12.

— jurisprudence in, 12.

— village life in, 13.

— study of religion in, 13.

— belongs to Europe, 1 4.

— all important for the study of the

human mind, 14, 15.

— what have we derived from, 21.

a knowledge of, necessaiy to a
liberal education, 29.

— ancient literature of, 1 16.

— vast extent of, 122.

— from Sindhu, 170.

— Chinese account of, in A.D. 231

and 605, 271, 276.

— sends tribute to China, 277.

Indian literature, its influence on our

inner life, 6.

— * character transcendent, 105.

— philosophy, 244, 249.

— patriarchs, 309 note.

Indias, two different, 7.

Indoi,i7o.

Indo-Scythians, invasion of the^ 85.
Indos, 170.

Indra, 65, 95, 155, 161, 172 note, 179,
183,189,195,199,252.

— name peculiar to India, 182.

Indus, 140, 166 note, 170, 171, 173

note.

— valley of the, 12 2.

Inflnite, the, 105, 107,

Ingle, Scotch, 23.

Inner life, influence of Indian Htera-
tiire on our, 6.

Inscriptions in India, 206.

Intellectual ancestors, our, 17.

Ionian alphabet, 203.
lonians beginning to write, 204.
lord, the Earth, 370.

Iravati, , Ravi, 165, 172.

— valley of, 288 note.

Isana, 329.

Isidorus, 261.

Iskardo, 267.

Ismenian Apollo, temple of, 203 note,
Isvara Kf /sh^^a, 361.

Itiliasas, 88.

I-tsing, the Chinese traveller, 210, 302,

310. 338* 342, 349*

I4sing, his account of the Buddhist
priests, 21 1.

— visits IsTalanda, 311.

— his lists of teachers, 312.

— and of friends, 312.

— his travels, 343.

— on grammar, 343.

— date of his book, 345.

Ivory, 10.

Izdubar, or Mmrod, poem of, 138.

JACOBI, Dr., on the word p^amitra,
336.

Jehovah, 181,

Jewish race, study of, necessary to
true study of the Christian re-
ligion, 1 7.

— relation of, to the rCvSt of the an-

cient world, 17.

Jewish and Semitic, our relipon is, 20.
Jews, 17-

Jilam or Behat, 173*

Jitsu-nan, 277, 297*

Jdbares of Arrian, 171.

Jomanes of Pliny, 171,

Jones, Sir William, 32, 90, 267.

— on the Laws of Manu, 91 note,
Joshua’s battle, 182.

Judgment of Solomon, 11.

Julian period, 283 note.

Julien, Stanislas, on the meaning of
Men-tse-kia, 344.

Jumna, 165, 1 68.

Junagadh, 250.

Jupiter, 153, 180, 195, 201.

— Pluvius, 16 1.

— Byaus and Zeus, 182.
Jurisprudence in India, 12.

Justice of the Indians, 55.

Justinian, 353.

K, see C.

Kkbul, 274.

Kadainbari, 329.

Kadmoa of Miletos, 204
Kadphises, coins of, 293.

ICaegi, Professor, 1S2.

Kaifcyi, 67.

Kakolflkam, 264.

Kakuda Katyayana, 336*
Kalapadipika, the, 350,

ICalha?ia Pawc^ita, 31 5 note, 3 59.
Kalha^^a’s History of Kasmlra, 356.

— Ba^atarahgiMt, or Chronicle of

Cashmere, 359.

Kalidasa, 5 , 79, 3 3 1 note, 339, 35 3»
355» 361.
plays of, 90, 91.

— Humboldt on, 90.

—- date of, 91, 93.

mentioned in an inscriptioxi, 91.

Kalidasa, real date of, 301, 301 note,
307, 312.

— tolerance felt in Ms time, 307.

— same as Matr?’gupta, 313,

— synonyms of, 314.

— a Braiiman, 315 sioife.

— mentions Greek astronomy, 326,

— • on eclipses of the moon, 327.
Kaliknt, prince of, 56.

Kali-Ynga, 373.

Kallimachos, 263,

Kalpas, the, 373.

Kalpashtra, the, 336, 362.

Kamal-eddin Abd-errazak Samar-
kand!, 56.

Kamandaka-niti, 339.

Kttmarhpa, kings of, 288 note.
KamashtraofVfitsyayana, 332.
Kamboyas, 131 woiJe.

Kamya-srMdha, 374.

Kanabhu^, 360.

Kawabhhti, 350, 35jr, 358.

Kawada, 360, 3^1.

JfUndali dialect, 295.
Kandarpa^’akravartin, 350.

Kmdi, a scold, 330.

!Kmdik§>, 330.

Aandra, 351,

Kandrabhaga or Asikni, 173.
jKandragiipta, 206, 216, 297.
Kandra^arya, 353.

Kandrapala, 311.

Aandrapida, 333.

— Chinese embassy to, 333.

Kanerki = Kanishka, 297.

Kanishka, the ;S’aka king, 87 » ■292#

296.

— his inscriptions, 292.

— date of, 293, 297.

— coins of, 293.

— coronation of, 297, 306 note.

— birth of, 304, 306,

Kanjur, ii,

— story of the women and child in

the, II. '

Ka^l^ana, gold colonrtd, 13 1 note.
Kant, 6.

Aan-ti — Paramartha, 361.
Kanyakubga, 286.

Kapila, 360, 361.

Kapila system, 362, 3^2 ^^o^e.

Karana, the, or Paj^fcasiddhantika,
■■■,■319,^320., ' ^ ;

Kirika, the metrical, 361.

Karikas, 348, 351,

Karmahga-sruddha, 375*

Karnikaras, 131 note.

Aan^a, Jiarvaka, 342,

Kasawara, on I-tsing, 344, 349 *
KadkaVnttiA, quotes cat and mouse,
210 264.

K&sika Vntta, 338, 339, 340, 341,
34 ’. 346. 347 -

— Vamana and {^ayaditya, the joint

authors of the, 341.

— vntti-pa%ika, 341.

Kasmira, on the Hydaspes, 315, 330,
332, 333 *

— Almanack of, 283 note.

— Council of Korthern Buddhists at,

296.

— ■ Buddhist writings in, 304.

— Tasubandhu studies a^ 303, 305.

— kings of, 313. 335.

— Kalhana’s History of, 356,
Kasyapa, 138.

Ka/aka, 335, 339.

Kdte, Lith., 263 note.
KaiAa-Upanishad, 67.

Ka^/iaka, 138.

Kathaka or reader, 81.
Katha-sarit-sagara, 356, 358, 359.
Kathenotheism, 147.

Karra, 261-

Katti, Finn., 263 note,

Katto, Lapp,, 263 note.

Aaturasfiti, circles of villages, 47.
Katyayana, 93 7iote, 266, 309, 350,
35 ^*

Katze, M. H. G., 263

Kaura, or Kaurisurata-pa;^Mak^, 331.

Kausika, 71.

Kavi Bhr%u, 372.

Kavi inscription, 285.

Kavila system, 362 note,

Kavira^a, 331, 331 note, 339 » 34 °*
Kavyadarsa, the, 314, 357.
Kavyakamadhenu, 34 1.
Kavyalahkara'Vritti, 339, 340.
Kavyaprakasa, the, 329 note.

Kedy, Turk., 263
Kentoku, Shincloku = India, 276.
Kern, Dr., on the ^'alivahana era, 300.
Keshub Chunder Sen, 41, 80, 249.
Khai-yuen-lu, 376, 377.

Khakan, the, 56,

A/ian dynasty, 377.

A/mndovi/jiti, 332.

Khiang or Kanka, 275.

Khilas, the three, 344.

Khosru Nushirvan, 93, 356. ■«

A/nm-tshu and Yih-king, 347 *
Kielhorn, on the Mahribhashya, 351
note.

Kieou-tsieu-kio, 276.

Ainas, or Chinese, 131, 1 31 note.
Kirataryunlya, 301.

Kirutas, 131 note.

Aitrakfiia; mountain of, 351, 353.
Klaproth, on the Gomal river, 1 74 note.
Kleostratos of Tenedos, 321.

Kodzulo Kadphises, 297.

390

INDEX.

K6fti = K^btil, 276.

Kophen, 166-173.

Koran, oaths on the, 51, 53.

Ko^pavos, Gushan, not Kotpavos^ 276
note.

Korur, battle of, 282, 282 note, 283,
289.

Kosha, the, 346.

Kot, Koti, Boh., 263 note,

Kot, Kotke, Pol., 263 note,

Kot”, koska, Russ., 263. note,

Kottr, 0. K., 263 note.
Kozola-Kadaphes, 297.

Kranti, twelve, 375.

Krita-Yuga, 373.

Kritlyas, defeated by the king of
Himatala, 306.

Knttika, full-moon of, 128 note.
Krumu, 166, 173 note, 174 note.
Kshapawaka, 329.

— or Bhartnhari, 329 note.
Kshatriya, a, 142.

Kshatriyas, 214,372.

Kshemendra Vyasadasa, 358.

Ksbira, the commentator, 334, 339.
Ktesias, on the justice of the Indians,

55.

Ktisis, 204.

Kubha, 166, 173.

Kuenen, Professor, on the worship of
Yahweh, 252 note.^

Kidanatha or Guwarata* 377.
Kuliridas, king of, 131 note.
Kullavagga, 78.

Kullhka, 372.

Kumara, the title, 288, 288 note. See
^Srikumara.

Kumara-sambhava, 326, 339.
Kumara^iva’s translations of Yasu-
bandhu's works, 308, 309, 309
note.

lives of old teachers, 312 note.
Kummla, note.

Kunene, 169
Khrma, 138.

— or Tortoise, 368,

Khrnikrit, 347.

Kurum, 166, 173 note.

Kuvalayaptda, 334.

Kwan, the Emperor, 277.

LADAK, the, 173 note.

Lakshmawa, brother of R^ma, 68^ 334.
Lalitaditya, 315 note, 333, 334.
Lalita-vistara, 362.

— Ku Pa-hu’s translation, 363 note.

— Divakara’s translation, ^ 6 ^ note.
Lambas, or Lambakas, 358.
Lam-shi-Keng, 275 920 ^ 5 .

Language, a Museum of Annuities,

30.

Lanka vatara, 355> 360.
Lahkavatara-shtra, prophecies in the,
298, 298 note.

— translations of the, 299.

Lares familiares, 222.

Lassen, T30, 131 woie.

— ; his derivation of the Zodiacal signs
jfrom Babylon, 324.

Law of Nature, 243.

Law-books, metrical, 88, 227.

Laws of Manu, 12,91, 92, 142.

— date of, 12, 91.

■ — Sir W. Jones on, 91 note.

— system of caste in the, 95 note.
Legends of India and the Jews, coin-
cidences between, 10, ii.

Leibniz, 28.

Letronne on the sign of the Balance^
322.

Lettic, 190.

Leyden, 5.

Liah dynasty, 377.

Liberal, the, 80.

Life, a journey, 99.

Lightning, son of Parpanya, 186 note.
Li-men-lun = Nyayadvara-taraka- sas-
tra, 346.

Literature, Sanskrit, 76, 77, 83, 84,
88,89.

— of Greece, 89..

— of Rome, 89.

— of Gemiany, 89.

— of Buddhism, 89.

Little Thibet, 275.

Lituania, 190.

Lituanian, 190, 192.

— Par^anya in, 191.

— prayer, 192.

Lizards and snakes, 262..

Logograpbi, 204.

Loka-kala, 294.

Lok^yata, 362.

— Sect, 310.

— School, 342.

Lokottaralalita, the, 340.

Lost Tribes, th^, 139.

Lubbock, 109.

Ludlow, on village schools in India,
62 note.

Ludwig, translation of Sanskrit words,
164 note, 166 note, 167 note.
Lunar Zodiac, 126, 129.

— Stations, 126,

— Yedic, 129.

— Arabic, 130.

■—* Chinese, 130,

MACAIJLAY^S History, 120.
Macedonian coins, 8,

Mackenzie, 5.

MMhava, 341, 354 note, 362.

INDEX

391

MMliavagupta, 288. I

Hadliavarya, 354»^oie.

M adliiipark a sacrifice, 305.

Madiiuvndb, 167 note.

Madhva, 360 note.

Madbyadesa, 298.

Madras schools, 62 note.

Magadba, 287.

Magadbl, 78.

Sbhlrata,S9. 1o, li.SS.go, 142,

354 375 -

^ still recited in India, 8i.

• — publicly read, 273* ■

^ allusions to Maiiu in the, 305.
Mababbasbya, the, 264, 334 > 347 » 34 °»

349 ^ 351 , 352, 353

Mabadeva, 350.

Mabakavis and, Mabakavyas, 353.

Mabalaya, fifteen, 376.
Mabaraya=Kumara raya, 287,
Mab?iryasiddhanta, -^K^ note.

Mabayay^as, the five, 127, 228.
Mabayana, the, 303.

— form of Buddhism, 87*

— doctrine, 305, 310. _

Mabayana-bodhi-sattva-vid^a-sangiti-

sastra, 332 note.

Mabayuga, 373 *

Mabesvara, 211, 243, 287 note.
Mabraud of Gazni, 54 > 294*

Maine, Sir Henry, 48.

Maitrayani TJpanisbad, 322.

Maitreya, 305. 309

— Bodbisattva, 362.

Malavika, 339. ^

Malcolm, Sir John, on the Hindus, 61.

Mallanaga Vatsyayana, 332.

Mallinatba, 306, 307 » 3^7
Malyavat, 357.

Man. of Bagdad, 125 note.

Mana, a golden, 125,120.

Manab,i 25 . ^

Manatunga Sfiri, the 6raina, 3 ® 7’.33

337*

— =:Matanga, 330 %ote. ^

converts Vikramaditya, 330.

Manava-dbarma S^astra, 91, 92

note, 365.

Manava’dharma SCitras, 300,

Manavam, 91.
blanavas, Laws of the, 74.

Mand, mantZa, 346 -
Mawdia or mandaka, 345 *

Mattdfika, 345 * . .

Mawdfikeyas, grammatical works 01

"the, 345 -

Manes, 220, 221 .

Mangaia, 150. , ,

Manikyala, JEtoman coins at, 29 3 '
Ma^fca, 344 > 345 * ' ■

. 354

Mafikba, 328.

Manning, Judge, 154.

Manorama, 341.

Manoratba (Mano’rbita), the Bud-
dhist, 289, 302, 335, 339 -

Manobbita (Manoratba), 289 note,

302 note.

Mantra period, 207.

Manu, 5, 222, 265, 364, 371, 372.

— Laws of, 12, 47, 91, 92 woie.

— date of, 12, 91.

— metrical code of, 92 note.

— - Sambita, 92 note.

— Law-book, 92 note.

— and the Fish, 134-6.

— on the cat, 264.

— on Truth, 273.

— Svayambhuva, 364.

— - Dbarmamstra, 366.

— sawbita, 366.

— 'period, 373.

Hairawyagarbba, 372.

— rites, fourteen, 375.

Manus, seven, 372 , 373 *

Manushya sacrifice, 229.

Manusbyas, mortals, 37 ^*

Manvantaras, fourteen, 375 *

Manzil, Arab Lunar Stations, 130.

Maori Genesis, 154, 155 *

Marathon, 19.

Marco Polo, 4, 56.

Mfiryara, cat, 24, 204.

mfisbakam, 264.

Mari/ci, 372.

Mars, 153.

— and the Maruts, 182.

Marsden, 5.

Martanda, 300.

Marten, 262.

Marudvrfdba, i 65 »i <55 t?ote. _

Maruts, Storm-gods, 95, 145 >

185, 189.

— and Mars, 182.

Maskarin Gosaliputra, 33 ^*

Matarisvan, 144, i 7 ^» ^ 46 *

Mathura, 298.

MatW, the name, 314
Matngupta, the poet, 313, 3 ^ 4 ? 3 H

— king of Kasmlra, 2B9, zn,
note.

same as K-filidasa, 313*

— =ICallgupta, 314. . •

— friend to the Buddhists and Gains,
3i5woie, 328.

Matn/t-eta, 302.

— the poet, 210.

becomes a Buddhist, 302.

— bis hymns, 302. . ,

MaTuaiilin, Chinese historian, 287.
Maui, son of Bu, 15L ^ 53 *

S 92 ,

INDEX»

M^ui, legend 151,152.

— Potiki,. 155. ^

Mayajiarya, 354 woie.

May to, 307, 338.

MayUraka, 329, 330.

. — son-in-law of Bana, 329.

— wrote the Mayflrasataka, 330,
Meditative side of human nature in

India, loi.,

Meer Sulamut Ali, 57*

Megasthenes, 55, 166 7iote, 206, 207.

— on Indian village life, 48.

— Bejah known to, 172.

Meghadhfca, 339V
Mehatnu, 166.

Melanippe, 157.

Men-tse-kia, or Mancfaka, 344.

' Mere names,’ 201.

Meriituhga’s Shac^darsanaviMra, 362

note.

— systems of philosophy in, 362 note.
Mesopotamia, 20, 119.

Metamorpliic changes in religions,

107.

Metaphor, 109.

Metrical Law-books, 363.

Mill, 262.

— History of British India, 42.

— view of Indian character, 43.

Mina, 125.

— its weight, 125 note.

Minerva, 201.

Mithradates II, 274.

Mitra, 136, 162, 185, 196, 245.
Mitrasena, teacher of Hiouen-thsang,

309-

MleMas, 281.

Modern Sanskrit literature, 88.
Mohammed, 130.

Mohammedan coins. 8.

— conquerors of India, 54, 36.

— sects, number of, 57.

— rule, 73.

— conquests, 353.

Monasteries in India, 346.

Moon, the, determines the Yedic
seasons, 127, 128.

Moral Law, 243.

Morality, we are Saxon in our, 20.
Mordvinians, the, 192.

Mount Everest, 84.

Mny, mn'sh, 189.

MWI’Haka^ika, 295, 339.

Mrfe, 189.

Mrvshfa, participle of mna, 189.
MSS, of liig-veda, 202.
Muhhrtaganapati, 300.
Muh,hrtamtoa?Jcfa, 300.

Muir, 5.

— translation of Sanskrit words, x66

note, 167 f2o/6.

Muktaplda or Lalitd,ditya, 333.
Multan, battle of, 282 wo^e.

Mummies of cats, 262.,

Muwtfa, inhabitants of India, 12.
Mu%a, the, 331 note.

Munis, or I?'/shis, 372.

Munro, Sir T., on the Hindus, 41, 62,
Mhs, O.H.G., 24.

Mus et mustela, 263.

Mush, mus, 24.

Mussulman conquest of India, 54,
Mustela furo, ferret, 262.

— foina, or stone marten, 262,

— putorius, polecat, 262.

— different sorts of, 363 note.
Mustelae, 261.

Mustella, 24.

Mutopi, or Muktapicfa, 333.
Mykenae, 259, 260.

— Persian character of treasures

found at, 259.

Myse, Slav., 24.

ISrABHlNEDISHrHA, sonofManu,

364- .

Hagabodhi, 304.

H^ananda, 329, 331 note.

Nagara(7a, 338. ^ ^

Nagaryuna, the AHrya, 304, 312, 361.
Nagesa, 340, 342.

Haimittika-sradclha, 374.

Naiyayika, 362.

Nakshatras, the, 27, 126, 128.
Nakshatravidya, 332.

Nakta and Hyx, 182.

Nakula-sarpa/t, 264.

Nala, 90, 94.

Nalanda, monastery of, 286, 305, 346,
348.

— Hiouen-thsang at, 310.
Ntoamala, 339.

Nandideva, 357,

Nandishtra, 362 note.
Nan-hae-ki-kwei-chouen, by I-tsing,

342.

Ntoda, 93 note.'*

Narayana, 300, 329.

— author of the Vewlsamhira, 329

note.

Karendra, 2S8 note.

HarendrMitya, 318.

Hative scholars, 63.

— traditions on the literary history

of India, 352 note.

Hearchus, 307.

— - on Indian writing, 307.

Herbudda villages, 270.

Kerbuddah river, 45.

Nestor, 369.

New and Full-Moon sacrifices, 231.
New Testament, Hevised Edition, 120.

I IT D EX,

..393

Newspapers, Sanskrit, 79, So,
in vernaculars, So.

Ni, the verb, 342. \ ^

KiA:ula, friend of Kalidto, 307.

Nine gems," or nine classics, 93, 281,
281 note, 320, 327, 328.

Nineveh, 18.

Nirnaya-sindhu, 374.

Nirnkta or Nigha7i^u~Men-tse>kia,

344.364,365-

Nitipradipa, 3 28.

Nitya-sraddha, 374.

North-West provinces, villages in,
47 7 iote.

Northern conquerors of India, 86, 87.

« — Aryans, 96, 100, 102.

— mountains, 135.

— invasion of India, 291,

■ — Buddhists, Council of, at Kasmira,

296.

— Buddhist era, 306 note.

Numerals, Pronouns, and Verbs in

Sanskrit, GreeK, and Latin, 29.
Nyasa, the, 342.
Nyl-sakara:=ssGinendra, 34I.

Nyaya, 360, 361.

— studied by Hiouen-thsang, 361.

— - works on, by Buddhists, 361.
Nyaya-dvara-taraka-sastra, 308 note,

361.

Nyi^anusara-sastra, 361.

Nyayasthiti, 332.

Nyaya-varttika, the, 300.

Nyx and Nakt^j 182.

OBINN, 146 note, 370.

Okavango, 169 note.

Old Testament, 1 7.

Oldenberg, Professoi’, onNaka era, 296,

297.

Ooemo-Kadphises, 297.
Ooerki-Huvishka, 297.

Ophir, 10.

Orange river, 169 note.

Orissa, 77." .

Orme, 42. ^

Orpheus and JSibhu, 183.

6s, 6ris, 26.

Oude, 170.

Ouranos, 195.

Oxus, 259. .

--- treasures found on the, 259, 260.
«— or Kwai-ahui, 275*

PIBALIPTA, 337- -

PadaliptaHrya, 337.

Padama%arl, 341.

Pahlavi, translation of the Pa^f^ra-
tantra, 93.

— — Buddhist stories, 356.

Pai-lun, iSata-aastra, 309, 309 note.

PaisaM dialect, 357, 358.
Paka-sacrifice, 1 36.

Paktys, 1 70.

Palestine, 15, 17.

Pali dialect, 88,

Palimbothra, 1 70.

Palladius on the cat, 261.

Palor, Balors, Balornts, Iskardo, 267
note.

Pan and Pavana, 183.

PaJidavas, 131
Pandit, newspaper, 79.

Pandits, 40.

— Professor Wilson on the, 41.
Pawini, 211, 295, 350, 351, 356.

— on animal enmities, 264.

— his derivation of vaidhrya, 266.
Pamni’s grammar, 338, 339 ? 342 , 343 *

— its divisions, 351.

Pa^/rala country, the, 298.
Pa^^zA'asikha — Napileya, 361.
Pa;?^atantra, 93, 355, 356.

— mention 01 the cat in the, 264,

265.

Pahkti, wife of Vislmu, 145 note.
Papa, Earth, 154.

Papiias, 123.

Papyri, 118 wofe.

Papyros, the, 205.

Paradise, 29.

Paramahawsa Sa^:Hdananda, the an-
chorite, 251 wofe.

Paramartha, life of Vasubandhu, 312
note, 377*

Parasara, 360 note.

Vsxg, paryanya, 189.

Paryanya, 181, 183, 189, 194, 199,

3S8, 369.

— asura, 184.

— hymn to, 186, 187.

— who is, 188.

— its derivations, 189, 190.

— found in Lettic, 190, 191,

— and Perhn, 192.

— identified by Grimm, 192.

— Perkima, Perun, 193.

Pars, parsh, 189.

Parsu, pmni, 1 89.

Puxiiva, 304.

Parsvika, 306 note.

Parthia, 139, 274, 275.

Parthian coins, 8.

Parushwi, 172.

— Ira-vatl, 365,

Parvawa Sruddha, 340, 374, 375 -
Parvata, 353.

Parvatl, 315 note, 357.

Pata, twelve, 375.

Patalibothra, 206.

Pa^aliputra, 170.

— = Patna, 55.

394

INDEX

Pa^alipTitra, kings of, 298.

Pata^^^rali, author of the Mahlibha-
shya, 264, 267, 296, 560.

— Mahabhashya, 339, 347, 351, 352.
called KhrJiikrit, 347.

TUkm inscriptions, 285.

Pathya, wife of Phshan, 145 note.
Patna, 77, 170.

Patollo, 192.

Patrimpo, 193.

Pafi^valis, the, 337.

Panins Alexandrinus, 320 note,
Paulus al Yunani, 320 note,
Paura^kas, 366.

Peacocks, to.

Peisistratos, 205,

Peraun, Bohemian, 192, 194.

Percuna, prayer to, 192.

Percunos, thunder, Old Prussian, 19 1.
Periegesis, 204.

Perildes, 205.

Periodos, 204.

Periplus, 203, 204.

Perjury, common in India, 48 note.
Perkons, thunder, Lettish, 191.
Perkun-kulke, thunder-bolt, 191 note.
Perkuna, 193, 369.

— transition of, into Perunii, 369.
Perkdnas, Lituanian god of thunder,

191.

— and paryanya, 191 note.
Perkuno,i92.

— gaisis, storm, 191 note.

Persia, 18, 20, 32, 33, 139.

Persian coins, 8.

— treasures found on the Oxus, 259.

— found at Mykenae, 259.

Persians, 18.

— what we owe the, 19.
Personification, 109.

Perun, 194, 369.

Perfin, Old Slavonic, 192.

Perunfi, 369.

Pesas, TTOtKiXos, 189.

Petersburg dictionary, 1^4 note.
Phalguna, full-moon of, 127 Jiote.
Pherekydes of Leros, 204 note, 205-,
Philosophical works, early Greek,. 205.
Philosophy, we are Greek in our, 20.
Phiegyas, 176.

Phoenicia, 18, 20.

Phoenician letters, 203, 203 note.
Phoenicians, 18.

Picker, Picken, Esthonian god, 193.
Pida=Bhai{d, 349.

Pina, or Pida, or Vina, 349.
Pm<ia-pitnyagf>?a, 228,

Vhig, pish, pis, 189.

Piorun, Polish, 193, 194.

Pipal tree, 50.

Pisa/ia dialect, 358.

Pitkne, Pitcainen, 193 note.
Pitn-sacrifice, 239.

Pitn's, fathers, 230, 222, 237, 371,
372, 373. 374 -

— the deities, 365-

— of the Brahma?ias, 372.
Pitnyay/7a*sacrifice, 225, 228, 229,

230, 231.

— two, 231.

Plato, 6, 354.

— Dialogues of, 121.

Pliny, on bullion in India, 8 note.

— • Indian rivers Imown to, 171, 172.
Poetry, 109.

Poland and Lituania, 191.

Polecat, 262.

Political communities, 12, 13.

Politics, we are Roman in our, 20.
Polyki-ates of Samos, 205.

Polytheism, its meaning, 145.
Pompeii, no bones of cats at, 262.

— pictures of cats^at, 262.

Poseidon, 108.

Pota and Kipin, 276.

Pr, the root, ferire, 369.
Prabandhakosha, 329 note.
Prabhakara, or Prabhhkaravardhana,
287.

— a worshipper of the sun, 288.

— his date, 289.

Prabhamitra, 312.

Pra^apati, 137, 246, 258.

Prayapatis, the, 372, 373*

Praknt, used in plays, 79.

— dialects, five, 295 note.
Praknta-sarvasva, 295 note.

Prainam = logic, 305, 308.
Pramantha, wood rubbed for fire, 176.

— and Prometheus, 183.
Pratapa-rudra, the, 31 4.

Pratapaslla and Yasovatl, parents of

j8lladitya, 288.

Prattkas, 251.

Pratisakhyas, 213.
Prabna-Kamra-nandini, 79 «
Pravarasena, king of Kasmlra, 313,
314. 3 ISr 316. 332-
Prayer to Picker, 193.

Preta, gone away, 220.

Primitive state of man, 113,123.

— Tedic poets not, 123.

• — Yedic poets are,'i 24.

Prince Consort, Life of, 120.

Prinsep, 5.

Pnshata, pWshati, 189.

PHthivl, 137, 188, 370.

— wife of Agni, 145 note.
the broad earth, 158.

Pnthivyapida, 334.

Pnthhdaka, quotation from Arya-
bha^a, 319.

INDEX.

395

Prometbeus, 176.

— and pramaiitha, 183..
npo^(cu), irepKVos, 189.

Proto-Aryan language, 25.

Prussian, Old, 190.

— gods, 192.

Ptolemy, 18.

— Indian rivers known to, 171, 172.
Pulakesin of Kalya wa, 287.

Pulakesin II, Satyasraya, 287 note,

288 note.

Pulastya, 373.

Pumice-stone, 152, 154.
PuwcZarlkakslia, 350.

Punjab, 12 3, 164.

Purawa, 88.

— Kagyapa, 336.

Pura^^as, 88, 142, 221, 298, 332*, 366,
373 -

— tlie deluge in the, 133.
Purusliapura, monastery of, 302 note.
Purusbottama/, 340.

Pfirva-mimamsa, 3^0.

Pbrvapaksba, 115.

Pdrvedyu/t, 376.

Pdsban, 163, 185, 197.

Pusbkaletra, battle of, 339.
Pushpabbbti, 288.

— a worshipper of /Siva, 288.
Pusbpadanta, 357, 358.,
Pusbd-graddba^ 375.

Pushtus, 170.

EA< 9 A. Ktiraadeva, patron of Kavi-
331 note.

Bayagekbara, 328, 329, 331 note.

— author of Prabaridbakosha, 329
note.

Rayatarangml, the, 3T3, 315 note, 316,

328, 333. 334. 339. 358-

R§,ghava Bha^a, commentary on

kuntalA 314

Raghavapa^icfaviya,. 340.

Eaghu, 68.

Eaghuvamga, 326, 339.
Eayyavardhana,. 287f 288.

— date of, 289.

Eayyasri, wife of Grahavarman, 288,
334 *

Rahulabhadra, 3.04.

Eljendralal Mitra, on Sacrifices, 231.
Rama, 67, 68, 69.

— and the Brahman, 68, 69.

Rama Bava, the Yedanti anchorite,
2^inote.

Bamami;9'a, ^60 note
Eamasrama, 314, 316, 317.
Bamayawa, 67, 88, 90, 332, 354» 354
. note, Z$$. :

— plot of the, 67.

^ still recited in India, 81.

Bamayajza, Zodiacal signs in the, 322
note.

Bam Comui Sen, 41.

Bamhit, 1 66.

Bam Mohun Roy, 143 note, 249.
Banaditya, 31S.

Bangi, Heaven, 154.

Bangimotia in Mangaia, 151.

Basa, 166, 173

Batnadharmaraya’s Life of Bhagavat
Buddha, 304.

Batnavali, 329.

Bavana, copy ofPamni’sGrammar,35 1.
Bawi, 173.

B,eaders, not many in ancient times, 120,
Beal and Bight, 65 note.

Recitation of the old Epics ia India,
81, 102, 273.

Reformers, religious, 336.

Religion in India, 1 3.

— we are J ewish and Semitic in our,

30 .

— and a religion, 106.

— the life of the ancient Indians, 108,

— of Rome, various ingredients in

the, 1 24.

Bdmusat on’ the Goths and yueh-chi,

86 .

Renaissance, literary, in India, 85*, 90,.

— age of, 93.

— Sanskrit, 355.

Bennell, 5.

Revised New Testament, 120.
Bliys-Davids, Buddhist Birth Stosies,
1 1 note.

JRtbhn and Orpheus, 183,..

Bibhus, the, 181.

Big-veda, 80, 85, 95.

— editions now publishing, 80..

— known by heart, 8 1.

— Bay ananda’s Introduction to the, 85..

— puMication of the, 143 note.

— length of, 208.

— handed down by memory, 208.

— Max Muller’s edition of, 280, 341.
Bimmdn, 1 39.

Bingold, first Duke of Lituania, 190.
Bfshi, 148.

Bishis, tbe Vedic, 224.

— the seven, 3-72, 373v
Rita, 64, 66, 243.

Biiv-lg, a priest, 1 27.

River systems of Upper India, 168.
Rivers, as deities, 163.
hymn to, 164.

— ^ in India, their names, 169.
Robertson’s Historical Bistpnsitions
concerning India, 43.
Bomaka-siddhanta, 28S note, 320 note,
337 *

396

INDEX

Eomaka-vishaya, 320 note,

Koman coins in India, 8.

— at Manikyala, 293.

— at the Ahin l^osh Tope, 293.
Eoman, our politics are, 20.
Eoumanian, no traces of catm in, 262.
Bu, legend of, 151.

. — bones of, 152, 154.

Blickert’s Welsh eit des Brahmanen, 4.
Budra, the Howler, 181.

Budras, the, 223.

Bunes, 203.

S, pronounced as % in Iranic lan-
guages, 170.

^abdakaustubha, the, 341.
iS'abdanusasana, 334 note.

&bdavidya, 343.

^abdavidya-samyukta-sastra, 348.
Sabina, wife of Hadrian, coins of, 293.
Sacred Books of the East, 280.
Sacrifices to the Departed, 227.

— various sorts ofj 228.

Sadharano Brahma Samaj, 143 note.
Sadhyas, 372.

S§.hasahka, not the same as >S^asanka,
287 note.

Sahitya«darpa?ia, 295.

Saint Thomas visits Gondaphares,

293.

./Saka, the prince, 282 note.

Soksb Era, 91, 282 notCt 291, 294, 296,

297-

— legends, 87.

— bhtipa-kala, 294.

.^Saka-Kala, 282.

Sakakorranos, a coin of Heraos, 276
note.

Sakamedha^, 1 28.

iSakanripalat, not /Sakannp^ntat, 295
note.

Bakanripante, 295.

^fakaparthiva, 296 note.

/8akara= barbarians, 293.

— =/S'a-sayer, 295,

— sakarl, 295.

— its derivation, 295.

— - fi:om Ssbkiif 296.
iSakara, or ^S'akari era, 296.
i8akari, the, 295.

iSakart dialect, 295, 296.

^Sakas, invasion of the, 85,

— defeated by TikramMtya, 90,

28 i.v'. ■

^akendra-Kala, 294*

Saketa, old name of Oude, 1 70, 298,
iSfikkl dialect, 295.
j8akti, ^60. note.

Baktivarman, minister of LalMditya,

333.

^akuntala, 5, 71, 90, 94, 339.

^akuntala, commentary on, by Eag-
hava Bha^a, 314 note.
/S'akyadeva’s hymns, 303.

/S'akyamitra •-= Si;nhala, 304.
^S'akyamuni, 336.
yS'akyas, 282
^S'alisfika, king, 298.
yS'alivahana or Satavdhana, author of
the Gathakosha, 331.

— or Hala, 331 note.

^S'alivahana era, 300, 376.

Samangadli plate, 285.

SamayaMrika Sfitras, 227.

Samhita of the Big-veda, 144.
Safnhitas, 92 note.

Sawiskaras, or sacraments at birth,
375.

Samvat era, go, 281, 284, 337.
Samvatsara, 65 note/ 2g2 note, 293.
San dal- wood, 10.

:^avdapo<pd'yos ~ Aandrabhaga, 1 73»
Sandhimat, 335, 3J9;

Sandrocottus, 55.

Sa%ayin Vairaf/ipiitra, 336.
Sahghabadra, teacher of Yasubandhu,

303 > 304. 305^ 309? . 3 ^ 3 .

— his Nyayanusai'asdstra, 307.
Sanghabhadra, 361.

Sahgraha, 351, 352, 353
Sangramapi( 7 a, 334,

Sankara, Akarya, the commentator,
354, 360, 360 note.

— his descent from /Siva, 360 note.

— his date, 360.

/S^ahkhadatta, 335, 339.

/S^ahkhayana GrihysL Sfltras, 365.
S^hkhya philosophy, 84, 310, 360,

361, 362, 362 note.

— shtras, 361.

S^nkhya-k/triktl., 354.

SMkhya-kHrik^, Chinese translation

of the, 360.

— composed by E^shi Kapila, 360.
5 ahkn, 329.

— not iSanku, son of Mayfira, 329 note.
Sanskrit, 15, 21,^22, 27, 28, 31, 1 16.

— study of, not appreciated in Eng-

land, 4,

— study of, in Germany, 4.

— - use of studying, 5, 234.

— words in the Bible, 10.

— its claliw.on our attention, 2 2, 30.

— its antiquity, 22.

•— its literature a forgery, 2 8.

— literature, 76, 77, 83, 84, 88.

— a dead language, 77, 78.

— yet universal in India, 79, 216.

-^ newspapers, 79.

— scholars from east and west con-

versing in. So.

— texts, number of, 82, 83, 84.

INDEX.

397

Sanskrit, all living Indian languages
draw tlieir life from, $2.

— grammar, importance of, 82. .

— attracted the notice of Goethe and

Herder, 90,

' — first known by works of the second
period, 90,

— of the Vedas, 216.

— importance of, 254.

— names for village r)ffi.cials, 269 note.
— - corruptions of the Greek signs of

the Zodiac, 326.

— MSS., 83, 213.^

taken to China, 213.

not used by students in India.,

213.

yS'antanu, 185.

Santhals, 49.

San-thsang'fa-sse = TriphakaHrya,
name forHiouen-thsang, 305 note.
^84ntideva, 304.

Sapiwdana-srilddha, 374, 375.
SapmdikaiMwa, 2j,8.

Saptadasa or YogilMrya-bhfimi-sas-
tra, 362.

Sapta Mislmyah, 372.

Sapta Sindhava/i, 132, 171.

Sarabitra, sar^iwil, 259.

/Sdrad^ alphabet, 329 note.

Sd.rameya and Hermes, 182.
Sarameya-mi.lryiirt1,/i, 264.

Saranyu and Erirmys, 183.

Sarasvatl, Sursdti, 165, 331 note.
^arva, 358.

Sarva-darsana-sangraha, 361.

>S'a6'ilnka, enemy of the Buddhists, 287.
^fistras, 228.

Sat, satya, truth, 64.

Patakas, three, onKdma,Nlti, andVai-
r^iuya, 348, 349.
iSatapatha Brslhmaka, 72? 13b
/^ata-silstra, PtU-lun, 309, 309 note,

— ascribed to Deva, 309.

Sittavahana, 357, 35^.

^atruwyaya Mdh^tmya, 282 note,
Satya, 64.

- — Vedic gods are, 04.

— OT Bits,, 65 note.

— astronomer, knows the Zodiac, 323,

324'

Satyam, a neuter, 65.

SatyavMin, 71.

Saumilla, a dramatist, 331 note.
Saurdshi5ra, 250.

Savage iiatiotis, study of the life of, 109.

— we only know their modern his-

tory* no.

— age of, 1 10.

— laws of marriage among, no.
KHvari dialect, 295 note.

Savitri, 162, 197.

Saxon, our morality is, 20,

Saxons, 15, 37.

Sayawa, 167 note, 334
Bayajia's Dliatuvntti, 341,

SchiefnePs abstract of Eatnadhar-
marapfa’s wwk, 304.

Schliemann’s discoveries, 260.

Schools in Bengal and Madras, 62 note.
Sehopenliauer on the Upanisbads, 253.
Science of Language, 12.

— to be studied in India, 12.
Scythian coins, 8.

Scythians, invasion of the, 85.

Season sacri 6 ces, 127.

Seleucus, 55, 206.

Self, 74, 104.

— the higl lest, 74, 253.

— objective and subjective, 252.
Semitic stock, the, 1 7.

Sena ; see Siddhasena, and ^rishejia.
Sena, wife of Indra, 145 note.

Sens, pra?sens, 64,

Setubandhu of Kalidasa, 332.
Setu-kavya, a Prakrit poem, 3x4, 335,
315 note.

Seven Bivers, the, 122, 1 71.

— land of the, 95 note.

Sh, transition of, into g, 189, 1S9 note,
Shaba^u, 139.

Shaddarsaiia-samu7j.*yiiraya, 362.

- — sj^stems of plnlosopliy in the, 362.
Shad-darshana-Chintanxka, 80.
Shahjahanabad, 170.

Shankar Pandurang Pandit, 307 note,

327*

Shashti-tantra or Kapiltya-sastra, 302.
Shauyook, the, 173 note.

Shekel and States*, 19.

Sliem, Ham, and Japhet, 29.

Shen-tuh, India, 275,

Shi-hoang-ti, 131 7 iote.

Siddhanta, 115.

— elementary, 343.

— kaumudl, 340, 350.
SiddliantasiromaT/i, 320.

Siddhasen a Bi vakara, 3 3<5, 3 3 7, 3 3 ^7iote.

— or Kimmdal-andra, 337.

— converts Vikramfiditya, 337.

— and S'rishe«a, 337.

— Sfiri, 336, 336 note.

Sidh, to keep oft', 170.

Sieu, Lunar Stations, 1 30.
51gbrabuddha, 312.

Sikh, 37.

vSikhandin, 70.

^ikshananda, 299.

/Slla, sonof/Sriharsha, 282 note, 306 note.
)S'ilabhadra = Bharmakosha, 310, 348.
^illditya (Harshavardhana Kumara-
ra^'a), ruler of Noi’th India, 2S6,

297; 3^9; 317; 329*

IFDEX,

j^lladitya, receivedHioiien"tIisang“, 286.

— received Syrian. Christians, 286.

— his death, 287.

— called also j&lladitya of Kanya-

kub^a, 287.

— ■ his true date, 288.
j8lladitya Pratapaeila, 288, 313.

— date of, 289,

— called also Bho, 9a, 290.

““ favours the Buddhists, 302 note^

■ — restored to the throne of XJ^f^ayini,

313-

Silama, meaning of, 167 note,
Silamavati, 167 wote.

Silver, relation of, to gold, 19.
Siwhagiri, 337.

Sindhu, 164, 167, 170.

— - meaning of, 170, 171.

— Indus, 1 71,

Sinim, the, 132 note.

Si-ri-fa-sai, 343, 345.

Sita, wife of Bama, 68,

Sim, 315 7iote.

— i^ankara, 360 note,

— SfLtra.s, 343.

Bivan, May-June, 139.

Sixty, greatest nu mber of divisions in,

V* . .

— minutes, division of hour into,

Babylonian, 18.

Sky, eleven gods of the, 145, 244.

— Polynesian myth of the, 150-152.
Sky lax, 170.

Sleeman's Eambles, 42, 44-54.

— his life in Indian villages, 46.

^ his view of the moral character of
the Hindus, 49.

^okas, 91.

Soanos, 166 note.

Sokrates, 157, 201,

Solar myths, 198.

Solomon and India, 10.

— judgment of, II.

Soma, 145, 155,162, 189, 224, 226, 230.
Somadeva, 356, 357, 358, 359.

— his Kathasarit-sagara, 350.
Soma-sacrifice, 365.

Somnath, capture of, 294.

Sooth, sat, 64.

Southern Aryans, 96, 102.

Buddhist era, ^06 note,

— Sea Countries, I-tsing’s book on

the, 343.

Speusippus, 320 woie.

Spinoza, 254.

^raddha, 234, 235, 237-242.

— many meanings, 235, 235 note,

236.

mitra, 237.

— number necessary for the Sa-

pMana, 238.

Sraddba, at birth or marriage, 239.

— Colehrooke on, 239.

— monthly, 240.

— quarrels about, 241.

— very early, 241.

^raddhas or Agapes, 68, 228.

— introduced by Manu, 365.

— twelve, 374.

— where to be perfoiuned, 375, 376.

— localities favourable and unfavour-

able for, 375.

— number to be performed, 375.
#Srama'/ia-brahmawam, 264.

/S'rauta, or priestly ceremony, 227, 232.
;S'resh^iliasena, 313.

^S^rl Bappapada, grant for the monas-
tery of, 318 7iote,
BridharasenaofVakbht, 350.
iS'riharsha, 282 note, 283, ^06 note, 330.
/Shlkumara, king of Eastern India,
287 note.

SrMiensb and Sushewa, 288 note.

— calculations of, ^20 note.
Snta-sena, or ^rutisena, 337.
Sroh-tsan-gam-po, king of Yarlang,

308 note.

/S'rotriyas, the, 20S, 210.

— their memory, 208.

Stallbaum, 28.

Stanley, 64.

Stephanites, 265.

Sthanesvara, 275 note.

Sthiramati', pupil of Arya Asahga,

305, 310 note, 318 note.
Sthitamati, 310, 310 note.

Stoat, 263 7iote.

Strabo, Indian rivers known to, 172.
Strattis, comedies of, 10.

Subandhu, 305, 308, 328, 331, 331
note, 332, 357.

— books known to, 332.

Sudas, king of the Tntsus, 172, 181.
jS'uddhi-sraddha, 374.

^S'Mra, a, 142.
iS'hdraka, 339,

^S'Mras, 372. ^

Sugar-cane on the Indus, 167 note.
Sui-shih, 212.

^uka, 360 note.

Sukhavati, 304.

5 iilba = copper, 296.
i8ulbM= sulphur, 296.

Suleiman range, 16 f note.

Sun, 177.

Sun and solar myths in Aryan my-
thology, 197, 198.
jS^una/isepa, 365;

StLT3>, 304.

Surkhab, 274, 275.

Sursfiti, 165.

Sfirya, 148.

INDEX

399

Si!lrya and Helios, 182, 197, 199.
SHryavatl, Queen, 356.

Susartu, 166.

Sushewa, the physician, 288.

Sushoma, 165 note, 166, 166 note,
Sutledge, battle of the, 172.

Sutlej, 165.

Shtra, 343.

— period, 207, 365.

Shfcras, 88, 90, 21 1, 221, 228.

— legal, 91.

— original, 352, 353.

— philosophical, 359.

— never mentioned in the Buddhist

canon, 359.

' — six collections of, 363.
iS'utudri, Sutlej, 165, 171, 172 note,

— known to Greeks, 172.

Suwan, 166 note.

Suwe’s visit to the Indus, 271.
^Svasrigalam, 264.

Svayambhuva Manu, 372.
iSVefei, 166.

Sydrus of Pliny, 1 72.

Sy Hermaios, 297.

Syria, 274.

Sze-ma-Tsien, 275.

TA-HIA, the, 274.

Tai-Ohin, the country of, 276.
Taittirlya Samhita, 137.

Talpa, 261.

Tamil, 76, 82.

Tiimralipti, 342.

Tane>Mahuta, Forest-god, 154,

Tanjur, the, 308 note.

T^para, village of, 300.

Taraka, the astrologer, 288.
Tara==Kien-hoei, 305.

Taranatha, 282, 283, 348.

— his history of Buddhism, 303, 303

note, 308 note,

TS-rapida, 333.

Taras, stars, 131.

Tarkava/i'aspati, 350, 350 note,
Tattvabodhinl, 80.

Tattvasatya-sastra, ■
Tawhiri-Matea, god of the winds, 155*
Tcheou = S'eu dynasty, 377*

Teka, 15 1.

Tennant, 42.

Terrestrial gods, 148.

Testimony of foreigners to the Indian
love of truth, 54, 57,

Teutonic mythology, 146.

Thakriya, 335.

Thebes in Bceotia, temple of Apollo
at, 203 note,

Theogony, 217.

Thirty- three Vedic gods, 145.

Thdrr, 146 note, 370.

Thdrr, called lardar burr and Fiorgyn-
jar burr, 370.

Thracian coins, 8.

Three Beyonds, 201, ,219, 243.

— classes of witnesses, 31.

Thsin dynasty, 131

Thuggs, Thuggee, 46, 49, 61.

Thunder, word for, in Lettish, etc.,

191-

— Esthonian prayer to, 193.
Thunder-storms, 179.

Tibetan translation of the Tripiifaka,

II.

— translations, 308 note,

— list of Hiouen-thsang’s teachers,

31 1 note,

Tien-chu = India, 276.

— products of, 276.

Tln-yiU, 275 note,

Tishri, September-October, 139.
Tochari, the, 2 74.

Tokharist^n, 274.

Toramawa, 313, 316*

Tortoise, the story of the, 134, 137 -
Towers of Silence, 4.

Towns, names of, in India, 169, 170.
Trajan, coins of, 293.

Treta-Yuga, 373.

Tretinl, 167 note.

Tribhuvana Malla, 285 note,

Tripkaka, the Buddhist, ii, 88.

— Chinese master of the, 305,
Tnshiama, 166.

Trishiuhh, wife of Rudra, 145 note.
Tntsus, the, 172.

Troy, siege of, 153.

Truth, regard for among the Indians,
54 -

Tsak-tin-mo-han, the Queen, 343.
Tukharas, 13 1 note.

Tumatauenga, God of War, 154.
Turanian invasion, 85.

- — or N orthern tribes, 86.

— Interregnum, 318.

Tumour, 5.

Turushkas, invasion of the, 85.

Turvtti Tayya, 1 8 1 ,

TusMta, 305,

Twelve divisions of the heavens,
321.

Two women and child, story of, in the
Kanjur, ii.

— periods of Sanskrit literature, 84,

87.

Tylor, 109.

Tyr, 1 46 7iote.

— and Tiu, 195.

— and Byaus, 370.

UDDYOTAKAEA, author of the
Nyayavarttika, 308, 332.

U^^valaclatta, 189 note,

Ugnis, Lith., '2-3.

U^^adi>s^tras, 265,’ 341, 344.
Universities, wliat they should teach,
' I,„2. ,

Untruthfulness of Hindus, 35,'
Upanishad, found in P4li, 359.
Upanishads, 84, 90, 246, 251, 332,

363-

— - dialogue with Yama in the, 247.
their beauty, 253.

— Schopenhauer on, 253.

Upavarsha, 350.
h'pham, 5.

Uraiios and V arum, 182.
tlrnavati, 167 note,

Urvasi, 90, 339.

Ushas and Eos, 182, 197, 199.
Uttara-ka?^c?a of the Eamayawa, 353
note.

Uttara-mimawsa, 359.

Uttarapaksha, 115,

YAGA, 164 note.

Vayambhai’a, 164 note.

■V%as as plural, 165 note.

V^asati, 164 note,

Vayin, 1 66 note.

Vayinivati, 166 note.

Vayradifcya, 334.

Vayrendra, 313, 316.

Vaichilya, 265.

VaicMrya, cat’s eye, 266.

— Pacini’s derivation of, 266.

Vaiyi, 352.

Vaisesliika, 310, 360, 361, 362.

nikaya-dasapadartha-silstra, 361.
Vaishwavas, the, 315 note.

Vaisvadeva offering, 230, 374*
Vaisvadevam, 127 woie.

Taisya, a, 142.

— or Vaidya, 286.

Taisyas, 214, 374.

Vaitana Shtra, 145 note.

Vaivasvata, 22^ note.

Yik, wife of TEta, 145 note.

— andTox, 182.

Yakpati, author of the Gauc^abaha,

VakyakaJida, Bhartrthari’s, 352,
Vakyapadlka, the, 348, 349.
Vakyapadiya, or Takyapradipa, 351.

— its three parts, 351.

Valabhl, rulers of, 297.

— era, 318.

— monastery of, 346.

VMmiki, the poet, 81, 328, 332, 355,

355

Tamana, 335.

— the grammarian, author of the

Kasika, 339, 341.

Tamana, the rhetorician, 339.

— the poet of Maharashira, 340.
Vanar^a, 285.

Vana-vi^ifila, 265.

Vans Kennedy on Mill’s account of
the Hindus, 44,

Varaha or Boar. 367.

Varahamihira of Uyyayini, 92, 93,
266, 294, 298, 319, 337, 360, 366.

— books quoted by, 320,

— his list of the signs of the Zodiac,

325, 326.

— quotes Manu, 366.

Vararu/j;i Katyayana, 329, 350, 351,
357, 358. 359*

— his Vfirttika, 351.

Vardhamana Mahavira Gi^ataputra,

336.

— his true date, 336.

— his Nirvana, 336,

Varinan, names ending in, 2 88 note.
Varro, 322.

Varttikas, 353 note.

Varum, 136, i62; i64, ^85, 195, 196,

245^ 371-

— and Uranos, 182.

— hymns to, 195, 199.
Tarunapraghasri/i, 137 note,
Yasavadatta, the, 288, 305, 308 note^

331, 358.

Yasishi{/m, 65, 74, 123, 160 note, 372.
Yasubandhu, 282 note, 289, 302, 303
note, 303, 305, 306, 312, 358, 361.

— his studies, 303.

— his recitations, 304.

— his death, 304.

— his pupils, 305.

— his works, 308, 309, 309 note.

Yasu Heva, 393.

— =:Bazodeo, 297.

— coins, 294.

Yasumitra, disciple of Guwamati, 304,
305 note, 306 note, 309, 309 note,
"^10 note.

Tasurata, 351, 353.

Vasus, the, 185, 219, 223.

Vata, the wind? 180.

— and Wotan, 182.

Yatsyayana, 332.

Vayu, or Indra, 148, 186,189-
YS,yu-purana, 332 note.

Yeda, 84.

■ — or Knowledge, 88.

— shows us the Aryanman,95,i 12,113-

— age of the. III.

— not yet thoroughly studied, 113.

— useless, 142.

— three religions in the, 217.

— highest authority, 2 50.

— importance to us, 2 54,

— hymns of the, 363.

IJSrDEX

401

Teda, seven poets of the, 372.
Vedanta pliilosophj, 84, 104, 244,
250* 253, 361.

— » Veda-end, 249.

— its present influence, 251,

— its beneficial influence, 253.

— found ill Pali, 359.

— known to Hiouen-tlisang, 361.
Vedanta-sfltras, 354.

Vedas, 83,116.

*— not written, 212.

— three, mentioned in Pali, 359.
Vedic religion, 89, 97, 108, 118.

no extraneous influences in the,

124, 125.

polytheistic or monotheistic,

144.

— mythology, 9.

— hymns nearly free from mythology,

108.

— hymns, age of, in, 119, 122, 216.

— India, 122.

-—poets, 122,

— I — the world kn'hwn to the, 174.

— poems, 123.
literature, 89, 94, 97, 112,

no foreign influence traceable

in, 140.

its age, 207.

three periods of, 215.

— sacrifices, 1 2 7. \

— students how taught, 209.

— Sanskrit, 141.

— gods, thirty-three, 145.

' — how classed, 148.

— polytheism, 146.

— i^^his, 149, 160, 372.

Veluriya and Veruliya, Prakrit, 266.
Venial untruths, 271.

Vewisawhara, the, 329 note,
Vetalabhaf^a, or Vetalame??iAa, 328.
Vibhasha>5ilstra, 302 note.

Vii^ala, cat, 24, 264.

Vidflra or B^lavaya, 266.

Vidyadhara A''akravartins, the seven,
357.

Vidyanagara, king of, §6,
Vidyanatha, author of the Pratapa-
rudra, 314.

Vidyavinoda, 350.

Vidyodaya, the, 79.

Viharas or Colleges, 8.

Vikrama era, 289, 337.

Vikramaditya j^arsha of Uy^ayini,
90, 281, 289, 309, 313, 317, 327?
328, 333,

— era of, 282, 284, 376.

— true date of, 286, 306, 312

— his treatment of the Buddhist

Manoratha, 289, 302 note.

— period of literature, 301

Vikramarka, 337.

Village life in India, 13.

Village communities in India, 46, 47,
268.

— number of, 47 ??, of e.

— account of^ by Col. Sleeman, 47, 48.

— noticed by Megasthenes, 48,

— morality in, 48, 49.

Village servants, 268, 269,

Village officials, kSanskrit names for,

26g note.

Vimokshasena, pupil of Vasuhaiidliu,

305*

Vinayabhadra — Sahghabhadra, 305.
Vipas, 166 note, 172, 172 note.

Vii%, wife of Variiwa, 145 note, 372*
Virgil, 29, 254.

Virgunia, near Ansbach, 370.

Vfr, vishfa, 1S9.

Vistikha, il.

Visakhila, 339.

Vishwu, 93 note, 133, 197, 306 note.
Vishwugupta=»iia?mkya, 220 note.
Vishnu-purima, passage on truth, 273.
Visvakarman, 137, 162, 246.

Vitasta, 165, 165 note, 1^^.

Vi vasvat, 164,1 64 note.

Viverra genneta, the gennet, 262.
Vopadeva, 341, ^42 note,

Vox and VaA 1S2.

Vnddha and B?’fliat, Manu, 366.
Vnddhavudin, 337.

VHddhavadisflri, 337,
Vnddhi'6Taddlia, 374, 375.

VWshala, low-caste people, 298.

Vntti Sfltra, 345, 347.

Vyadi, 350. 351, 353, 356.

— his Sangraha, 351,

Vyakarav^a, grammar, 343.
Vyakarawas, Buddhist prophecies, 298.
Vyasa, the poet and Biaskeuast, 81,

93 332, 355, 360 note.

WAITZ, 109,

WaUich, 5.

Ward, 42.

Warren, 5.

Warren Hastings and the Darics, 8, 9,

— oh the Hindus, 60.

Warriors, 95.

Wassiljew’w translation of Taranritha’s
history, 303 7 iote, 306 note.
Waters, divers gods of the, 145.
Weasel, 263.

— and woman, 10.

Weber, on Kalidasa’s date, 30 e note.
Weisheit des Brahmanen, Euckert’s,4.
Westermann, 28.

West-ostlicher Divan, Goethe’s, 4.
Wilkins, 5.

Wilson, Prof, 5, 39, 46.

d

D

402

INDEX.

Wilson, Prof., on tlie Hindu charac-
ter, 40.

Wisula or wisale, O.H.G-., 262.
Witnesses, three classes of, 51..

Wolf, age of Homeric poems, 202.
Wolf's dictum, 204.

Working men, 95 note.

Wotan and. Vata, 182.

Wou-ti, Emperor, 377.

Writing, commercial, in India, 207.
Written literature, 203.

XAISTTHOS, the Lydian, 204 note.

YIDA'VAPEAKI/S'A, 360 note.
Yag, ish^a, 189.

Yay/zadattabadha, 90.
Yay^latantra-sudliaiiidhi, 354 note.
Y%;7avalkya, 74, 92 note, 364,

Yah w eh, worship of, 252 note.

Yama, 144, 219, 323, 226, 245, 246.

— lord of the departed, 67.

— as the first man, 224.

— dialogue on death, 247.

Yamuna, Jumna, 165, 171.

— ^ known to Greeks, 1 71.

Yaska, 166 note, 172 note.

— ^ division of Vedic gods, 148.
Yasomitra, pupil of Yasuhandhu, 305,
309.

Yaaovarman, king of Kanyakub^a,
334 -

Yatra-^raddha, 375.

Yavanas, 131 note,

Yavaiiesvara and Gargl, Zodiacal
signs known to, 325.
Yavaiiesvara Aspho^idhvaya=Speu-
sippus, 320 note.

Yoga, found in Pali, 359,

Yoga sptein, 360, 362, 362 note.

— studied by Hiouen-thsang, 362.,
Yogananda, last of the Handas, 357,

358.

Yogasastra, 310.

Yudhish^/iira, 318.

Yueh-chi, the, 12, 86, 274-277, 297.

— and Goths, 86.

— horses, sent to the king of Siam,

271.

Yueh-ti, 374.

Yuga, four, 373, 375.

f Pisciuin, initial point of sphere, 320.
Za 5 dpdr]s ov ZdpaBpos, 1 72,

Zdpadpos or Zadap^s, 1 72.

Zeus, 108, 180, 195, 217.

Zeus, Dyaiis, and Jupiter, 182.
Zimmer, Prof., on polytheism, 146
note.

— translation of Sanskrit words, 166

note, 167 note.

Zodiacal signs, known to Sanskrit
astronomers, 322-326.

Zoology in India, 8.

Zox'oastrianism, 13.

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